Chapter 21 – The fall of the Valkyrie

Kali watched the devastation unfold from her monitor. The Valkyrie passed in between the Aurora and the Ardessa, and immediately waved the rest of her cores to even the odds. Kali passed Coral’s core giving her a wave and then stopped near Elli.

“Major!” Elli shouted in relief. “Thank goodness you’re back; we’re in a real mess here!”

“Meige and Princess Reecella have been captured,” Mavina’s voice interrupted them. “Search the retreating boarding ships and get them back.”

“What!” Kali shouted in anger. She groaned, turned the Valkyrie, and quickly searched for the boarding ships. Coral’s Blue 2 as well as Arthur’s Red 1 quickly joined them.

“I want you three to spread out and find that ship,” Kali ordered, diving downward. The three others complied and spread out dodging enemy fire while returning it. Two Sellan cores made passes against the Aurora’s unshielded pulse cannons, destroying two of them. Arthur turned his core scanning for the boarding capsules then aimed his gun. He fired a clip of shots tearing into the lead core until blowing it up. As soon as his gun ran out of ammo, a white beam burned into the second Sellan core tearing it apart in an explosion. Arthur quickly took a cartridge from his belt and jammed it into the underside of his rifle. He then turned his core and gave a wave to Coral.

“Thanks for the help Coral,” he said, boosting toward her.

“I-I didn’t really do much…” Coral answered back, looking down. She then picked up her head and pointed to her object sphere. “I’ve got a pulse, but it’s heading toward…the Aurora’s hangar?”

Both Arthur and Coral glanced at each other. Arthur quickly took the initiative and pushed his core at full speed toward the Aurora. Coral widened her eyes and quickly followed.

“Major! They’re going after the Aegis unit!” Arthur shouted, aiming his rifle. After sighting the drop ship he squinted in confusion, “…what the hell is that thing?”

Heading toward the hangar was a large armored assault ship. The assault transport had a large bulky body and was heavily armored. Two large engines where built around its sides, extending outward toward the back splitting into two boosters. Between the four propulsion systems, a large diagonal hatch was heavily armored and could open to load and drop cores. Above the ship was a rotating Type B auto-turret strong enough to attack frigates and corvettes and fast enough to decimate fighters and cores. Last, Twelve orbitals circled the ship firing a barrage of small machine gun fire into any Cenaran cores that approached it.

“What’s what thing?” Kali shouted, slashing a Sellan core in half. She turned furiously to another Sellan core nearby and watched it retreat at full speed.

“There’s a weird assault ship heading toward the back of the Aurora; one that I’ve never seen before,” Arthur shouted. “I’m going to see what I can do.”

“Hey be careful out there!” Kali replied, spotting a boarding capsule. She frowned, pushing hard on her thrusters, and sped the Valkyrie toward it.

Arthur fired a burst of ammunition into the ship while Coral slowed her core to aim her beam cannon. A trio of orbitals circled together and fired orange lasers into one other. A dim orange triangle appeared and quickly deflected Arthur’s attack, while others focused their light guns on him. As Arthur retreated Coral fired her cannon and watched the line of light approach the ship. Instead, the shield quickly dispersed and two more orbitals spiraled closer, forming a pentagon. Lasers fired between them and a bright orange shield appeared. The white beam smashed into the shield, but the orbitals easily held.

“I-I can’t get through,” Coral whispered, releasing the trigger to the weapon. “C-Cover, me I want to try something else.”

“I’ve got your back Coral,” Elli shouted, sliding to a stop toward her. Coral nodded with a smile.

“I’ll draw it’s fire then,” Arthur added, speeding around it. A hail of gunfire sprayed in his direction as its top turret locked onto him. He quickly sped underneath the ship to avoid the cannon but found two cores waiting for him. Coral quickly finished adjusting her cannon and aimed it at the assault ship.

“It’s approaching the hangar bay hurry!” Elli shouted. She held off another Sellan core and Coral nodded into her display. She pulled the trigger again emptying the entire cartridge in a powerful blast of energy. Six of the orbitals around the transport ship quickly formed a concentrated barrier to block the cannon. The shield activated and held off the blast, flickering as it did.

“I think its working!” Elli shouted. Then someone else shouted through the channel. An explosion gouged out a section of Arthur’s legs throwing him into the Aurora’s hangar. He slid across the deck sparking until sliding to a stop in the middle of the runway.

“Damn it!” Arthur shouted, kicking open his hatch. He quickly pulled himself out of the cockpit and sat on his damaged core. Outside, the orbitals began to spin and form other shields. The remaining six orbitals formed two sets of shields and slid around Coral’s energy beam.

“Coral! Cease fire, it’s going to reflect—” but before Elli could finish, the second shield bounced the beam into the third. Coral widened her eyes in fear as the third shield angled the blast back toward her.

“AAAAAAHHH!” Coral’s voice buzzed through the communication channel. The beam tore into her shoulder, melting her right arm and sections of her chest. Elli shouted, coming to her rescue, but had to quickly maneuver away from fire from other cores. The assault ship slipped into the Aurora’s hangar shredding the inside with heavy cannon fire. It immediately opened its front bay doors. Two partially invisible Sellan cores stepped out and began firing at the soldiers fighting back. Arthur retreated to the end of the hangar attacking with a small pistol as Colonel Donavan came running beside him. The large man groaned and snapped a single fire pulse cannon into its locking position.

“Fiona let’s hurry up and get out of here,” one of the women called into her comm. Fiona answered back with a nod and repositioned her core.

“Damn kids manage to get themselves grabbed,” Donavan groaned as he stood up. “And now I’ve got these bastards letting themselves in.”

Arthur ducked as Donavan fired a series of red lights into one of the Cores heads. The core turned its gun at their position but jerked to a stop, becoming completely visible again.

“Ya bastard! That’s what you get for going with special ECM options and not shielding!” Donavan shouted, moving away. Arthur followed and they both ducked under another set of crates. They heard a grinding sound above them and looked up. The Aegis turned its head, pulling its arms away from the locks, and ducked underneath the overhead crane. It slowly stepped over them and onto the main deck.

“What the hell is it doing? Who’s inside that thing!” Donavan shouted in annoyance. The remaining Sellan core held its gun to fire, but retracted the weapon instead. Aegis slowly walked past it, and into the assault ship. The core glanced back at the soldiers and then went to grab its comrade. After boosting back into the transport, the ship closed its doors and lifted, heading back into space.

“It did what!” Kali shouted. Two of her squad leaders were down, as well as a second officer. “You have got to be kidding me, what the hell is going on here?”

“I’m not sure, but we need to get them back at all costs!” Mavina shouted.

“Incoming enemy fire!” Horal shouted. Everyone grabbed onto their consoles as another salvo tore into the outer hull of their ship’s body. Kali listened to the shouts of the officers and turned to the boarding capsule. Five Sellan cores were standing between her and Meige, and she was in a bad mood.

“This is Battle Major Tiles of the Langly Raiders,” a voice buzzed over her comm. channel. “Thought you could use some help.”

A squadron of white and blue cores spearheaded the Sellan cores in between the Aurora and Ardessa. The Sellan cores retreated and fired back at their new enemies, no longer outnumbering Cenaran defenders.

“I’ll leave them to you then Major,” Kali thanked him. “I’ve got my own prey.”

The Major nodded and helped Blue 1 and Blue 3, the only active cores left of Blue team. Gold team had been completely destroyed and Arthur’s Red team was suffering. Tiles’ blue and white cores made passing runs against the Ardessa and then found the assault drop ship instead. Two of his cores attacked it from opposite sides, but the auto-cannon on its topside quickly blasted one of the cores into shrapnel.

“Be careful Major,” Kali shouted. “It’s a new type of Sellan assault ship, and is lethal to spacecraft.” The Major cursed and waved his units away from it, ordering them to keep their distance. But all attacks against it were impenetrable because of its rotating shields.

Just ahead of the Aurora and Ardessa’s battle, the attack on the Langly station was reaching its climax. The entire sector was swarming with cores and fighters still chasing each other through the ranks of capital ships. Missile destroyers were pounding at the remnants of many of the ship’s shields while cruisers and battleships closed in on each other for the kill. A Cenaran Solar class battleship passed underneath a Sellan frigate and concentrated all its energy cannons into a single point against the bottom side of the hull.

The Sellan frigate retaliated with a blast of cannon fire, attempting to destroy the bridge, but their difference in armor was too great, and the frigate quickly fell against the concentrated energy weapons. The Cenaran ship then took a direct hit from different set of heavy shellfire, blasting a crater in its side. It quickly turned its guns on the new enemy, but the Hullcracker had already fired another salvo of multiple cannons. The shells cracked into the small battleship and fire began spilling from its hull. The Hullcracker finished with another barrage and ripped open the ship, blowing it apart. The Hullcracker then emerged from metallic corpse pushing it away with its heavily armored front. It set it sights on another ship, and readied its guns. The already damaged Cenaran carrier was undefended and vulnerable.

But two separate volleys of plasma splashed the Hullcracker’s forward bow melting its heavy turret and a great deal of its armored hull. A rainbow of lasers crackled into its melting hulls and began tearing holes in the ship.

“That’ll teach you to blindside my ships,” Admiral Boomer shouted from his seat. The blood against his forehead had thickened and his cigar had been worn down by his smoking.

“Sir, the Vengeance is making another pass on us, incoming salvos in 5…4…”

“Forget the small fry then, take us on an intercept course, I want to see the Vengeance burn.”

The Athendale slowly turned its hull to face the Vengeance as the small string of shells impacted along its body. It fired back with its working pulse weapons and heavier energy cannons. Heavy damage to the aft plasma turret had disabled some of its heat sinks keeping it from constantly firing. The armor of the Vengeance was also beginning to wear thin as nearly a quarter of its body was covered in long lines of laser burns and plasma scorches.

Beyond both ships, the core and fighter battle continued to wage as well. The Langly’s colored bomber squadrons were taking heavy casualties against Sellan flak frigates and missile destroyers. But the Cenaran cores did their best to protect them, by maneuvering onto the individual missile destroyers and manually destroying their torpedo and missile ports.

“I’ve been locked, I need some help,” someone shouted from their bomber. A nearby core sped toward it to protect it from a line of missiles trying to knock it down. The core fired into the individual missiles destroying each one. Just as the core destroyed the last one, the bomber relayed his thanks. But the pilot didn’t have time answer back, as a Sellan flak frigate found him. The frigate fired a storm of proximity rounds, most finding their mark near the lone core. The core exploded with no chance of escape.

Meige sat quietly across from Reece and tapped his foot. He could hear the destruction of the battle raging in every direction but tried his best to ignore it. The faster he left, the better everyone’s chances were at survival. He had asked Aegis to give up immediately keeping the damage to a minimum inside the Aurora’s hanger. Meige folded his arms and tensed, glancing at the soldiers near him. A dozen armed troops were also sitting around him, still in full gear while they held their rifles down. One of them pointed outside the ship and began whispering to the person next to him. The other man turned around and frowned. Reece stood up walking to the window and then slowly backed away in fear. The room rocked harshly as a loud thumping vibrated against the hull.

“Get back to the ship!” Kali shouted. “That’s an order damn it! What the hell are you doing!”

Meige quickly stood up hearing Kali’s voice on her loudspeaker and laughed. Reece fell down on her bottom with a yelp and frowned. As Meige knelt down next to her, he smirked and whispered, “If we get back to the ship, you are going to be in so much trouble.”

“Humph, she’s just jealous,” Reece responded, sticking her tongue out at Kali.

The Valkyrie quickly let go of the capsule to avoid a close-ranged attack. Kali extended her wrist blades and threw up a barrier in front of her core. A missile exploded against the barrier and Kali leapt through it, tearing the arms off the core that fired the missile. She then stabbed its chest, and kicked it away. Another core chipped away at her armor and she dodged. Her armor was now pushing its limits. She held out her palm and fired a beam of green light blowing up its right leg. Kali turned her head in the direction of another missile and threw her hands up. The Valkyrie grabbed the missile with invisible hands and waved the warhead into its amputated ally, finishing it off.

“Michelle, return to the ship, I’ll take on the Valkyrie,” The woman inside the Sellan core ordered, “Isis and Fiona have achieved their objective, cover their ship.” There was another reply and the woman watched her subordinate retreat back to the Ardessa.

“I’ll kill every one of you if I have to do it piece by piece,” Kali groaned, checking her displays. The Valkyrie was no longer responding as quickly as it should and it had no ammunition left. Her arms and wrists were in the red zones while her legs and chest continued to stress. Warning and error indicators appeared on and off all over her HUD but she closed them, not caring. The boarding capsule was now only a few minutes away from the Ardessa, and she had to hurry. She took a breath and tried another pass on the capsule, but this time the Ardessa’s guns tried to push her back as well.

Kali maneuvered her Valkyrie in and out of the smaller guns, making sure to avoid the big ones all together. She weaved around to the backside of the boarding capsule and the gripped its back. She extended the wrist blade into the engines side and cut into it, slicing through its systems. The engines slowly blinked off indicating they had been disabled and Kali glanced around again.

“Major Tiles, are you still out there,” she called. “Give me some cover, I’m taking this back.”

Kali grabbed the capsule tightening her grip on its backside and aimed her jets toward the Ardessa. She then pushed all her power into her boosters and began pulling the capsule away. Major Tiles’ cores held off attacking forces and fired into the Ardessa’s smaller turrets. A string of beams blasted against the Ardessa’s hull, melting layers of armor. The Ardessa was forced to concentrate its fire on the Aurora again. Kali thanked her sister and then continued her work.

“Hah! See you lose!” Meige shouted enthusiastically. He noticed the growls of some of the other soldiers and quickly retracted into his corner of the room.

“Oh yeah,” Reece shouted tapping her ear, “Drop a barrage against the top of this ship, I don’t care how close you have to fire! Scare her away!”

Meige heard someone comply; unsure of whom Reece was talking with at the other end of her hidden communicator. The other soldiers looked at each other and then slunk into their seats, holding tightly against their benches and the walls. Meige squinted looking around, and then felt a thunderous whistle outside the ship. The Valkyrie quickly let go blasting away as heavy suppression fire from the Ardessa attempted to destroy its own boarding capsule. Kali groaned as several signatures began closing in on her. She no longer had the capsule as a shield and was in the open again.

A group of Sellan fighters from one of the carriers attacking the Langly Station pushed her further away from the capsule, and she activated her barrier for protection. Their bullets and lasers ricocheted away, and she retreated again. Two of the fighters flew too close and Kali cut them down instinctively. She kicked a third fighter out of the way and finished it off by blasting two emeralds beams into its wing. Kali triumphantly shouted noting her Valkyrie was nearly at its limit.

Suddenly a Sellan core dropped in front of her. It had the markings of an ace as well as the rank of Crusader. Kali smirked and charged the core, pushing her thrusters to full. The Sellan core ducked back pulling out a longsword and blocked Kali’s beam wrist blade. Kali returned with a high kick and spun her body. She quickly slashed at the sword several times. The core was pushed back but quickly countered. Kali wrestled the Valkyrie’s arms to block and then hovered back under the intense strain of the attacks. More warning lights illuminated her cockpit as sensors became more distorted. Kali focused and threw up a barrier, blocking the Sellan Crusader, until she could come up with a better plan. She then spotted the capsule below her and set her sights on it. After a quick boost, she glanced back and exploded the barrier, knocking the Sellan core away. Then a proximity warning appeared on her HUD.

Kali turned her Valkyrie around to find herself staring down three barrels of the Ardessa’s triple Type D shell turret. Her hands immediately went to the thruster controls and a small red button on the overhead console. The Ardessa’s heaviest gun unleashed a trio of shell fire. The first shell struck the Valkyrie’s left side, annihilating its arm to leave an enormous hole. The second shell missed while the third struck the Valkyrie dead center. The impact of the shell ripped the Valkyrie in half, shattering its stomach. As its chest and thighs were crushed under the force of the passing shell, its right arm hand was also severed and smashed. Sparks and liquid spilled from its joints while a myriad of parts where scattered in different directions. The Valkyrie slowly tilted back and turned its head upward. Then its engines cracked and engulfed it in magnificent green explosion.

Mavina screamed and fell to her knees. She held her head tightly staring at the ground in disbelief. The image of the Valkyrie’s destruction stayed frozen on the side monitor. The rest of the officers stared in horror as the indestructible will of their captain lay shattered. Roland reached Mavina first and gently held her. He quickly ordered the rest of the crew to their stations to continue fighting. Mavina shut her eyes and shook her head. She then opened them and slowly relaxed, still breathing hard.

“Are you alright Captain?” Roland asked. He glanced back up at the screens to see how the rest of the battle was going.

“I lost her for just an instant,” Mavina cried. “Kali’s fine but…”

Meige stood for a long moment, staring blankly outside the boarding capsule. From the corner of his eye, he watched some of the Sellan soldiers cheer. In front of him, Reece dropped to her knees with a fearful expression on her face. Meige walked closer to the window walking past her and focused on the debris of the Valkyrie. He wasn’t sure what he was searching for, but the core had been obliterated leaving very little of anything. He slowly clenched his teeth and turned away staring angrily at the floor panels. The thought of seeing her lifeless corpse was the last thing he wanted to witness.

He had a glimmer of hope that Kali escaped, and sat down, shaking his legs. As long as he held onto that thought for now, he could avoid the possibility of dealing with her death. Meige felt a tug against the hull of the ship as a Sellan core grabbed it, pulling it manually into the hangar. Beside the boarding capsule, the large assault ship with the Aegis also passed by.

The boarding capsule quickly entered the Ardessa. Covering its retreat, the assault transport continued to fend off Cenaran cores. Once the Infiltrator had entered its bay, a large black bubble appeared in front of the Ardessa.

“It’s going into subspace!” Roland shouted, standing over the sensory terminal. Mavina rubbed her headband with a frown and looked at the main screens. The Sellan cores were retreating back into the Ardessa while the Cenaran forces could do nothing more to retrieve the Aegis or the two captors.

Admiral Boomer also stared into his ship’s damaged and blinking screens. All the remaining Sellan ships were entering subspace ignoring the Cenaran ships still firing at them. The Vengeance also broke away from its attack, slowly passing into the dark bubble that engulfed the ship.

The Ardessa climbed into its bubble, and the Aurora ceased its fire against the ship. But latched onto the Ardessa’s hull, was Kali. She had narrowly escaped the death trap her core turned into, and easily touched down next to a docking door outside the Ardessa’s hull. She looked around and watched the large bubble slowly come closer. She returned to the door. She quickly held out her arm as a metallic liquid morphed around her wrist into a data pad.

“Come on, get me in there,” she moaned, holding the panel against the door. The liquid around her other wrist fired an emerald blade outward, and Kali jammed it around the control panel to the door. She slid her hand in a rectangle and ripped open the panel covering the sensitive computers. Her data pad began decoding the door and she quickly tapped a series of commands into the holographic display projecting outward. Small displays appeared and she maneuvered them with her bladed hand. The bubble around the Ardessa was quickly passing over the rest of the ship eating away the hull with darkness.

“Come on, I really don’t want to be stuck out here,” she moaned again, moving her hands faster. The door flashed green and unlocked. She quickly pulled it open with both hands. She then dove into the hatch, turning her body to close the panel. The darkness loomed over the exit as the door slid shut. A terrible noise echoed through the hull, forcing her to wince and cover her ears. The Ardessa’s hull rocked while the rest of the bubble swept it into subspace. After the subspace procedure had finished, a strange calmness lingered. Kali rubbed her helmet in relief and then dropped closer to the bottom of the hatch.

“I can’t believe this,” she muttered. “They destroyed my Valkyrie.” She relaxed in the small space above the entranceway underneath her. “It’ll be up to me now to keep Meige and the Aegis safe.” She rubbed her helmet but knew her sister wouldn’t hear her. “Sorry Mavina, but it looks we’re going to be taking a slight detour from now on.”

Special thanks to Papi, I went back and tried fixing the things you pointed out, and also WIM, lol, and fire0ice. And also thanks to you others who read, but didn't review, and to those are still reading (when you get here, thanks again lol)

If you do make it here and haven't reviewed, please leave me something, anything at all. Actually, I'd be really happy if you let me know what you thought in general, any questions or comments and how soon you want Vol 2 up. It's done, but I think I might wait a month until I get more feedback. I really hope you enjoyed it. This was actually the first story I ever did, which is why it may have looked a little amateurish. My others are better lol, but I think this is still my favorite. Check profile for Summary on SP V2 to see what you're in for, as well as other upcoming stories.