Heritage

Heritage (Chapter 43)

Chapter 43: Elena

"Commander Blake, enemy fleet is preparing to fire. They're scrambling star-fighters as well. What do you suggest we do?" The tech lieutenant says to me in an unnerved tone.

"Launch all fighters and direct power to forward shields. Prepare all forward cannons and Jackal rockets to fire at once. Relay the same orders to the rest of my quadrant. Also, bring up communications with General Blake," I respond hailing out orders almost in a habitual fashion.

Six months has brought a lot of fighting, off-world especially. Ethan and I were still assigned to the same unit but due to the events that transpired in the Poseidon incident, they decided to place us on separate ships in the same fleet with Ethan at its helm, commanding everything.

A hologram pulses and Ethan's face projects on a holographic screen.

His face is stern and more stressed than usual as I watch him yell orders to and fro across the bridge of his own fleet ship, the UFS Apollo, sister ship to the Poseidon and all the more enhanced.

It boasts an titanium-carbon armor shell with an over layer of a newly discovered metal gifted to us by an ally species of humanoids called the Jinkor.

They call the metal malcon, meaning impenetrable in their native tongue. Most energy rounds simply bounce off the ship or leave a slight char mark on the hull of the ship. Along with said armor, the Apollo holds a host of state-of-the-art weaponry including: the newly approved missile system appropriately named the legionnaire.

The main gun is a rail-gun, linear cannon hybrid. It fires a twenty-foot metal spike that has been infused with a highly electrified plasma charge that when fired sheers straight through most any substance known. The secondary cannons, posted on numerous places all over the ship fire high velocity, high caliber, plasma energy shells.

With such outside advances, so must there be inside advances that match. The bridge of the Apollo is of a new, revolutionary design that allows its operator to see everything from one central position as opposed to having to move back and forth on the command center to read the monitors. Every status readout is laid directly in front of him in a half dome projection so that all the operator needs to do is rotate his body.

In addition, the outside viewing monitors have been replaced by a large dome viewing window to remove any risk of viewing feed lag or malfunction. The Apollo also has a simultaneous feed connection to all ships in its fleet, which allows it to communicate in conference with all fleet ships through live, uninterrupted video chat.

Ethan turns his face back to the screen and looks at me, sweat beading down his face. "All fleet ships, prepare to fire all cannons," He says in a focused tone.

I glance back and forth at the numerous system controllers punching in numbers and coordinates to the various weapons that are on my ship.

Ethan's face becomes hard and cold on the monitor as his eyes narrow down. "All ships...Fire!" He shouts to the fleet.

All of us as Commanders and Captains of our respective fleet ships give the confirmation to follow through with Ethan's order in a simultaneous fashion.

Rockets and plasma shells scream across the dead space that separates our two fleets as both sides launch everything, they have at each other.

Shells explode on the hulls of both enemy and ally ship, explosions stopping just before they collide with the raw metal due to the shields that surround each fleet ship. I feel my own ship rattle as each hit reflects off the shields, sometimes causing me to nearly fall over.