Assorted Ancient Texts

The Fall of the Condor

***The first story I ever wrote, a short story about a spaceship battle.***

"Sir! Two ships just emerged from slipspace!" A tall man dressed in a white uniform turned around; Captain John V'Dac.

John looked at the giant viewscreen taking up the entire wall in front of him. His eye darted to a white glowing sphere flattening out in space. The disk of white light several miles across flattened on the view screen. A crewman studied his monitor and blurted,

"Another slipspace rupture. That's 3 of their ships against us!"

John already knew the odds, 1 alien cruiser could destroy 3 human ships easily. And now the circumstances were reversed. John reached out of his pocket and put on a pair of glasses, they had a small screen built into the lens from which he could navigate the ships computer personally. The screen in his glasses came to life and showed the 3 alien ships from the front camera array along the bow of his ship. He looked at the crewman,

"Ready the main weapons systems and initiate emergency maneuvers. Plot a course like so," he thought about a course and immediately a line leading through space appeared on the crewman's monitor. The crewman nodded,

"Plotting course 45 units ahead at speed of 230, initiating weapons systems alpha and beta."

John tapped the earpiece in his right ear and it opened up a transmission over the ship's speakers,

"Attention all crewmen, this is your captain. Three enemy vessels have been spotted and are closing on our position as I speak. Emergency maneuvers have been initiated. All personnel get in emergency-ready status."

He tapped the earpiece again, closing the transmission. The alien ships charged their weapons as glowing spots of plasma glowed white-hot along their ships. All of the alien craft fired a huge, white-hot glob of energy that spit sparks like a ball of semi-contained lightening bolts. The plasma mortars flew through the void in between the alien ships and the human vessel. John stared at the viewscreen and grabbed onto the handrail beside him, bracing for the impacts soon to come.

The first mortar hit the Condor's shields after about 8 seconds, lowering them, exploding into a cloud of gas, vapor, and sparks. The ship shuddered violently in response. The second plasma mortar hit the shields a few seconds later depleting them completely. The crewman nearly screamed in panic,

"Energy shields are down completely! Transferring power from engines to shield recharge stations!"

He began to type away at his computer terminal but John stopped him,

"No! Continue running engines on maximum burn! Stay on course!"

The crewman hesitated and nodded, a drop of sweat trickled from his forehead down through the center of his face. Everyone at the bridge looked at the view screen as the last arcing, furious plasma projectile rapidly burned its way toward the now shield-deficient human vessel. Six seconds later it was within a mile of the 2 mile long ship's hull, everyone gasped as it flew closer and closer. It disappeared off the view screen, out of view. Everyone in the bridge held his or her breath, waiting for the explosion. A few seconds past by and nothing happened. John pointed a shaky finger at the crewman nearest him,

"Give me the stern camera array, 50% lengthwise,"

The crewman immediately typed a command into the keyboard. The viewscreen in front of everyone cut in half lengthwise and another camera feed played in the gap. It showed nothing but the beautiful, vast emptiness of space for a full second. Suddenly the plasma mortar flew into view, not even a quarter of a mile away from the camera. It continued flying through space in a slight arc, missing the Condor. Everyone on the bridge breathed a sigh of relief; they had survived. John knew they didn't have time to relax though; the enemy would fire again soon. He turned to another crewman in front of a monitor,