Breathing was all Captain Pierce could hear. He was unsure how much longer he would hear it, as the crusier appeared to have contained more firepower than he anticipated and was now attempting to give the Daemon a consistancy similar to sand. Angel's voice radiated around his exoskeleton, however she did not appear on the internal screen, at least she had common sense. Pierce was gliding through the ship's interior, and it was difficult enough already to navigate the twisted passageways and bent metal.
"Captain, the cruiser appears to be emulating the signal given off by your pod. That would explain why it is still intact."
"Oh great" said pierce, "The bad guys aren't completely stupid, that makes our job harder".
"What job is that?",
"Getting out of here alive, are you completely downloaded into my suit?"
"Yes, and i have mapped a layout of the surrounding area from the last of your pod's databanks"
"Leave it be, I know exactly where im going."
He did, Pierce was executing every turn and jump with the certainty of a man who had one goal. If he could reach one of his own cruisers, or even another escape pod. Most UCA starships were well armed, especially when compared to what he had seen of this new technology, or perhaps, nore correctly stated, recycled old technology. Grey corridor after corridor, here an fall, and now a gap where some ancient blast had melted through the ship. If this was considered an untouched ship... No, Pierce could not bring himself to imagine the rest of his division, and his life. The main hangar was close no, only twenty metres from the captain, the now enemy cruiser had been quiet. It was not as if the blasts could not penetrate this far into the unshielded ship. They must have ceased fire, perhaps they were attempting to conserve energy, or perhaps they were waiting. Either way the door frame was at his feet. The exoskeleton's wrist guard parted to reveal a small cutting laser, the door, old and irriadiated, its frame already weakened, melted away. He floated on through the doorway. The torch on his chest piece was detachable, thus Pierce took and threw it infront of him and slightly what was currently up. the torch dulled in flight. Then it burst in intense light, flaring up, a roman candle illuminating the massive hangar, and its occupants. Pierce took in the scene in flashes as the newly created flare moved through the space, gliding towards the large closed bulk head doors.
Directly below him was the docking ranks for personal fighters, facing downwards, ready to "drop" and swoop under the Daemon and get into formation while covered by her bulk. they were in disarray, enemy ships had flown below the ship and destroyed the launch tubes.
Ahead were the cruiser class ships, only three remained, well perhaps more accurately two and a half. They were, like the cruiser he had travelled here in, designed for long range flights with medium firepower. Transport ships for important cargo or for business.
As the flare reached the end of its journey and rebounded off the hangar door, it was well away from Pierce, but he could still see the last class of ships not completely destroyed. There was only one ship still intact, a star-destroyer class, a war vessel. Pierce's only shot at escape. As he glided down towards it, the flare's returning track shone on its smoothened features. It's main body consisted of two large rectangular arms, inbetween them, a smaller middle section that housed the cabin and vital equiptment. Glass panes in the middle section reflected the dimming light, however some shone in to reveal the cabin as untouched. One star-destroyer would take two hundred men and act as a miniature version of it's mothership. Infact they were known among the DL division as the double barreled disasters, as the two large barrel-like arms (while housing two large ultra-light engines in their rear that could change their thrust vector in order to counter the kinetic force unleashed by the Star-destroyer's weaponry), Contained a set of raised particle cannons on their front. It used to be said in pierce's corps that one of these could destroy a planet in just under four minutes. This was nothing compared to the Daemon, however it would hopefully dwarf any technology Pierce was liable to run into now. Luckily while the ship could take two hundred men, it only needed one captain to fly and engage basic weapons systems such as defensive lasers, ion cannons, and shields. On the inner of one of the ships wings, a hatch began to open, Pierce slipped inside. There was still no sound of the now enemy cruiser outside. With airlock decontamination complete, Pierce reached a control terminal and pressed his palm against it. "Angel, Get yourself inside, turn on the air and gravity, and find any damage".
"Right captain, I will integrate with the ship, will you be taking command?"
"Yes, yes i will. Log me in as the commanding officer effective immediately, then tell me what still functions."
As his palm remained on the panel, and angel coursed as a set of numbers and code from him and into the ship's mainframe, the walls and floors around him lit up. Here it was, his ships, his life was all here. The same lights, the lightly dimpled metal floor that had held him for most of his adult life. As the slow hum of the ship rose to it's beautifully fimaliar zenith, Pierce, with artificial gravity restored made his way to the command deck. Angel's voice came to him again, this time through the roof above him. "Captain the ship appears to be in fully functioning order, however I cannot access the eastern armoury"
"I don't think we have time to worry about that Angel, there's still a cruiser out there and i don't like the fact that is hasn't tried to kill me in the past two minutes."
"Understood, shall I power up life support and get us on our way?"
"Yes, let's see what our friends are up to."
Pierce was almost at the command centre now, and he had not come across a single body, or even a scratch in the ship's interior. It was obvious that the Daemon had not loosed all of her fury as the Star-destroyer gave every appearence of having not even left its hold. As he stepped through the opening sleek light gray door into the cabin, the ship's heightened hum changed in pitch almost inaudibly. The life support systems were now online. The exoskeleton surrounding Pierce started to compact and fold until it was simple a small pack on his upper back that dropped to the floor. Pierce took no notice, he was fixated with the small world around him. After learning of the time that had passed and of his situation he never imagined he would ever be here again. The air around him smelt liike...air. Most people are under the belief that air does not on its own smell, but infact the natural air composition of earth does have it's own unique smell, and this was recreated on the ship. however it was not quite right, it had always contained slightly more oxygen as deep flight through space at times required it. Air with a tint of the smell of crackling electricity perforated the space inside the cabin. The cabin itself almost brought a tear to Pierce's eye. In a world full of mystery and unknowns this was the first place he could fully understand. the command center of a Broad lance ship. three seated consoles lay out infront of him, and upon the glass screen through which the main hangar door could be seen, or more accurately half of it could be seen. The other half as pierce noticed, now that the cabin's overlaid display was active, had been seemingly blown away by either a missile blast or perhaps a piece of destructively floating debris. Once again Angel's voice surrounded him."Sir, we are ready to depart, and i have found the cruiser using the onboard close range scanners. It appears to be scanning the Daemon for heat signatures, luckily it has not penetrated this far yet."
Pierce smiled a thin smile, half of mirth and half the sad smile of a man of war, and with a fully functional and armed Star-destroyer at his command, why wouldn't he."I guess we had better help them in their search. Let's bring the heat. Raise shields, ready ship to ship missiles and bring us out of the hangar. Thrusters at 89%"
"Ay, sir."
The double barelled disaster rose as a animal waking, its journey out of the hangar door sped up exponentially. It shot out of the doors and into open space as if pushed with great force from within the wreckage of the Daemon. The cruiser immediately turned and fired directly at at Pierce. The bolt of energy charged through space on an imminent pathway right into the command deck. It never reached it's destination, instead it scattered harmlessly over the Star destroyers shield. Next it's forward batteries blazed as super heated rounds struck and were disintegrated by the shield, the effect being no more than a light show. Pierce's smile widened almost imperceptibly, he had guessed right and now came his retaliation.
" Angel? "
" Yes sir? "
" obliterate. "
Puffs of compressed CO2 could be seen jetting from Pierce's ship, then streaking across the endless night were four sleek ship to ship missiles. The first impacted and punctured the cruisers shield before three more shot through. The cruisers destruction was so quick that not even a flash was seen. In less than a second the bulk was gone, there only remained fine pieces, each no bigger than a man.
Pierce turned away, now that the immediate danger was over, he had to engage with his situation and decide a course of action, in a new universe. He decided it best to start to double check the ship, take stock of the provisions, weapons and medical supplies. Small tasks, one at a time that would keep his mind off his friends, his family, his Sylvie. Out there was a filth, a wasteland, perhaps it needed someone to pull it back together. Pierce knew he alone couldn't take on that daunting task, and so his toughts uselessly circled as he left the command center. However his thoughts didn't have the time to continue as once again a voice becoming more familiar spoke to him. "Captain, the eastern armoury, I just gained access to the sensors in that area. There is a lifeform inside, it appears humaniod, and it's trying to access the ship's main core, this is a problem."
Pierce sighed, "it's never easy"
