Alarms blared through the empty corridors of the orbital space station. The station was partially abandoned because of the ensuing battle raging in space and on the planet it orbits. An unknown enemy, resembling fungal and parasitic-like attributes, dominated the surface of the now bleak planet. The enemy was swift in assimilating the inhabitants and became like a plagued wave, spreading across the entire planet, engulfing every single organic life form and turning it into a highly intelligent and deadly force. The command center of the space stationed still held a few people, dedicated to wiping out the infection on the planet, but at the expense of the destruction of themselves and the planet.
“Sir, energy spike detected in the lower levels,” Eve, a petite blonde girl, decorated in her fleet uniform, manned a terminal in the command center, “if it keeps up, we’re going to lose the station and any chance at stopping this outbreak!”
“Keep going, I want it charged to max or all that we worked for is at a loss!” A bulky man in his fleet uniform, which his stomach poured over the edge of his belt, watched over the team.
“Aye sir...” Eve turned back to her terminal, inputting numerous equations and variables only a tech scientist could possibly know.
May god help us, thought Lt. Jurgen, the station’s chief officer, he and his loyal team stayed behind to carry out their last order, knowing the sacrifice they were making.
“Sir! It’s ready, it’s stable, but not for long, we have to do it now!” Eve yelled from her terminal as compartments throughout the station continued to violently explode.
“Do it,” Jurgen ordered, “and for those of you with a God, I’d be praying.”
He looked out the window at the destruction of the battlefield. Huge evacuations ships leaving the surface being dotted with lasers and kinetic missiles from the desperate fleet, preventing further spread of the infection at all cost. The stationed whined as the energy level in the core spiked far above the average limit, consuming every ounce of energy in the station. There was a quick silence followed by an extremely loud humming as the orbital laser fired a large and focused beam of highly energized particles down towards the planet’s surface. The beam ripped through the atmosphere like a red hot poker through wax. The effect of the beam cracked the planet and vaporized the surface. The planet crumbled for a moment, then imploded as the integrity, degraded, caused by a massive heating of the planetary core. The beamed finally came to a stop and the weapon’s core overloaded and turned the station into a molten slag of floating titanium and polycarbons, slowly cooling in the icy void.
Captain of the Gated Destiny, a destroyer class ship, stared at the monitors and watched the destruction of the planet, Tryden. He watched with no emotion, not out of cruelty or lack of pity, but because he had no idea how to feel. He turned back to the bridge of his crew, as a few watched and the others tended to the critical systems.
“Tally..” Cpt. Hyren almost whispered, “Get us out of here…” He turned back to the window and watched as pieces of Tryden floated in space. He turned to watch a pair of evacuation ships power their warp drives and in a blink of an eye, vanish into hyperspace. The Gated Destiny slowly turned and prepared her own warp drive before finally slipping into hyperspace herself. As the outside turned pitch black, Hyren sighed, turned around and walked to the holo table at the center of the bridge.
>>THE VIDEO
A first person view of a soldier materialized in the screen, even through a shaky HUD cam, and showed brilliant architecture that didn’t seem human. “Hey, your feed is breaking up John.” An unknown voice sounded into the soldier’s earpiece.. A subtle smack and the camera refocused itself, showing crystal clear pictures of the architecture, a magnificent gloss of blue and red-grey metal rounded in organic patterns, and what seemed like a temple in front of them. “Good job, John” A female’s voice was heard next. They continued towards the temple, the soldier’s instinct made him look everywhere for anything signs of danger, giving the monitor a great sight of the massive city. Looking of the same unusual architecture as the beam they were walking on. A shiny metallic grey red metal, that looked almost organic, but mechanical in nature. “Careful everybody, eyes sharp, we’re coming up on the temple.” The platoon leader announced. The soldier that was recording stiffened his aim and kept his weapon pointed towards the temple, still continuing to search his surroundings. Suddenly, the temple began emitting a red glow, which slowly started to spread to adjacent buildings, roads and other structures. “What the he…” whoever was talking was cut off as the city around them began to shake, the temple got brighter and brighter before it started messing with the camera’s feed. There was a large blast from the temple, followed by a shockwave which sent the soldier recording, to the beam and slowly the camera angled back towards to the temple as the soldier tried to sit up. “What the hell was that!” one of soldiers exclaimed. A large humming reverberated from the audio and a red beam shot into the sky; the video feed immediately went to static.
