Beyond Light

Evasive Maneuvers.

“Two artificial objects inbound in our area. Scanning,” said Xi.

“Damnit,” Mike cursed, turning his seat back to his terminals. “Seems like we aren’t outta danger. Wait. Did you say two?!”

“Yes. I’m scanning,” the Navigations Officer swept his fingers quickly on his holograms and keyboards. “Objects analyzed: Approximate length: 589 meters. Approximate height: 103 meters. Generating 3D models.”

John moved to Xi’s position. Both objects appeared on screen, identical to one another. Just like Goliath, they had a greyish dark coloration, and a prismatic body of six faces, giving them an appearance similar to a flashlight. Their cockpits had a single red eye on their middle, shining harder than a star. Multiple bays and smaller tubes were distributed all over their main bodies, like stealth fighters armed to the teeth.

“They are approaching, Commander,” said Xi. “140’000 kilometers from us.”

“And we’re approaching the asteroid belt,” informed Mike. “Should we pass above or below?”

“Through the middle,” responded John. “We are engaged now. Exposed like this we are only giving them clear shots.”

“But, Commander,” complained Jeffrey. “the risks of collision are high if we try to pass through so many objects!”

“And the risks of collision from the enemy fire are guaranteed if we stay here,” responded John. “Mike, let’s pass to evasive maneuvers. Try to not smack us against a giant rock. Xi, calibrate our weapons and leave a solution of mines when we transverse the belt. We are not gonna make their job any easy. Jeffrey, inform everyone on the weaponry decks 05 and 06 to deploy our defensive buzzsaw turrets.”

“Understood, Commander,” the three men valiantly nodded and focused on their terminals.

“Fine,” nodded John. “I’ll be on the gunnery station,” he left the cockpit and walked to the next room.

“Captain!” spoke Yuri, controlling the Helldragon-142 Focus Laser Cannons Systems. “Those bastards are approaching. Permission to fire.”

“Permission granted,” John got inside the darkroom and sat on the terminal behind the PFSR Master Sergeant’s position, giving their backs to each other.

“LIBRA? Xi? Get to work the Nebula-Nova. Let’s give them a good dose of ionized tungsten and titanium.”

“On work, Commander,” responded LIBRA. “Initializing load sequence for Type-12 Focused Beam Cannon: 8%”

Mike whistled through the com. channel. “We’re going heavy! That gun is basically a smaller version of the Eternity of Return’s Godmelter!”

“If they want a fight, let’s give them a fight,” said John.

“Alright,” continued Mike, his tone of voice contrastingly serious and focused. “Entering the radius of the Second Belt Asteroid. Let’s cross our fingers!”

Stellar dust began to surround the wide and black Beyond Light’s course. First planetary debris, then smaller boulders, and then mountain-sized rocks appeared, making up most part of the starry horizon ahead.

“Enemy vessels at 130’000 kilometers!” informed Xi. “Deploying anti-spacecraft mines!”

Both black tubes of red eyes behind them left red stellae. The Beyond Light spun on herself and let out 10 black spheres on her way, mixing with the rocks around.

“Load Sequence for Type-12 Focused Beam Cannon: 40%”

The two demonical ships entered the belt too, spinning on themselves as they began to bypass incoming rocks. Their eyes intensified, and both shot their giant lasers. Mike raised the Beyond Light and immediately went up, using a three kilometers large asteroid to cover.

“Enemy attacking us!” cried Jeffrey. Both lasers broke the asteroid and continued dazzling light until they hit the Beyond Light. Her shields evaporated blue light as they absorbed the attack.

“Enemy impact,” informed Xi. “Shields compromised at 51%”

“We’re fine. Keep going!” exclaimed John, trying to get a clear line of fire among the never-ending obstacles behind. The Nebula Nova cannon had not finished loading, but he wished to not miss his shot when it did. It was not quick to load it again.

“Enemy hit!” informed Xi. “We impacted one!”

The second of the elongated ships shook on itself as it collided against a mine, its shields shining in red as they protected it from the explosive damage. It continued gliding, and then another mine collided against it. The first one rotated to evade one, only to collide against a mine placed on its trajectory up.

“Various hits on the enemy. Their shields must be compromised.”

“Load Sequence for Type-12 Focused Beam Cannon: 80%. Almost ready,” said LIBRA.

“Can you get a clear shot, John?” asked Mike.

“No. They keep getting out of sight.”

The Beyond Light kept gliding and dodging incoming asteroids on her way, turning up and down, or raising her wings to not crash against anything. It was as if the alien ships didn’t have any trouble going through there, being smaller, and their bodies keeping the same area no matter how they rotated on themselves.

“Enemy fire!” yelled Jeffrey.

“Shooting back those sukas!” Yuri barked.

The bays on Goliath’s ships shined in red, and they began to unleash a rain of red mini lasers all over the path ahead. The Beyond Light fought back, shooting streams of eight multicolor lasers at them like a focused rainbow. The fire from both sides mostly hit rocks and clouds of dust, but some beams managed to impact their adversaries. They could dodge the enemy fire or the asteroids ahead, but not both.

“Wish this ship was a meteorbraker,” said Yuri. “Those ships can pass through asteroids like nothing!”

“And they are slower than a snail,” responded Mike. “Keep focused!”

More multicolor and red laser beams got shot from both sides as the three ships evaded mortal obstacles in their way. Both ships raised up and down, and bombarded the Beyond Light with melting radiation, her shields evaporating.

“Damnit!” cursed Mike, doing a 360 grades spin and flying in vertical. “They hit us!”

“Energy Shields compromised at 29%,” informed LIBRA. “Load Sequence for Type-12 Focused Beam Cannon: 100%. Status Complete.”

“We are not going to survive any longer!”

“No, Jeffrey," said John. "Xi, calculate their trajectory and deploy a second solution of mines. Let’s burn their shields before we pack them our best punch!”

“Understood, Commander. Deploying anti-spacecraft mines.”

John knew it. With their shields so low they ran the risk of getting them drained and get exposed, but they would not achieve anything doing chip damage against those two alien ships with their better maneuverability and shields. They had to go for it.

The Beyond Light expulsed more mines, surrounding the way behind her as a defensive, invisible wall.

“Xi, are our Volkov missiles working?” asked John, more lasers being traded forth and back. Yuri managed to get a clear line and impacted directly one of the ships, draining significantly its shields.

“Working and ready to fire, Commander.”

“Unleash a good ration at them when the mines collide,” the screen beeped. The mines had successfully hit a target. “Now!”

The Beyond Light bypassed a giant rock and flew up, raining hell on an alien ship. The combined fire of the missiles and the mines broke its shields, exploding away in an electrified red cloud.

“Mike, give me a good sight!” John tried to get the cannon the most stable he could.

“I’ll do my best. Give them hell!”

They reached a sector relatively free of any asteroids. Both alien ships spread, and their red eyes began to intensify, just as if they were loading their final attacks. But the Beyond Light was doing the same. A sphere with a cannon went down from her belly, and John focused the shieldless ship on the holographic sights of his terminal.

“Firing!” the Nebula Nova cannon electrified as its projectile heated and got accelerated through an electromagnetic field.

A beam of purple light got fired like a shooting star, focusing the weakened ship. It got impacted by a highly ionized tungsten-titanium 100kg round, burning at 3000 Celcius grades, and traveling at 14% the speed of light.

With an impact force of 4’200’000’000 Newtons, the alien ship didn’t stand a chance. It exploded in a red and black cloud like a balloon getting pinched by a needle. But the remaining ship kept its red eye intensifying...

“Enemy ship down!” exclaimed John.

“Woohoo!” whistled Mike. “Take that, you bas—”

The interiors of the Beyond Light trembled, shaking everyone down from their places. The lights went off, and the sirens screamed as if they announced the arrival of death.

“Blyat!" cried Yuri, John falling from his seat to the floor.

“Error,” informed Libra. “We’ve been impacted by laser damage. Our shields are disabled. Major damage detected on sectors 10, 12, 13, and 14 of the hull. Isolating the rest of the ship to prevent decompression. Number of Casualties: 39.”

“Godfuckingdamnit!” complained John, getting up and returning to his position. “LIBRA, turn that s**t off!” The sirens halted, illumination returning to its normal state.

“We’re still under fire,” said Xi. “We are not going to withstand any more damage at this rate!”

“We’re all gonna die!” cried Jeffrey. “They will kill us like the Eternity of Return!”

“No, concentrate!” ordered John. “Mike, is Cosmic Lynx still working? We are leaving.”

“Still working, Commander. But it’s risky to—”

“I don’t care!” interrupted John. “We can’t keep fighting on like this. Xi, set a course for Hawking-616f. It’s a super Jupiter, right? We can use its dense atmosphere, magnetic field, and radiation belt to cover us up. It’s that or we die here.”

“Setting course, Commander. Approximate distance: 2.1 Astronomical Units. ETA: 16 hours at maximum speed, or 15 minutes through a leap.”

“Do it!”

“Alright, We’re going. Opening rupture in 30 seconds,” informed Mike. “Get ready!”

The Beyond Light kept evading asteroids on her way, her black hull at her long, wide wings on her rear damaged into a cluster of debris, and black smoke coming through it. Her shots became more aggressive; multicolor beams kept bombarding the way behind alongside Volkov missiles. The intact enemy ship shot lasers back, impacting the already mauled hull of the gracious stealther.

The alien ship’s red-eye intensified once again, but before it could shoot its burst laser and reduce to a cloud of scrap the Beyond Light, the human ship crossed a white and blue portal ahead of her, disappearing from normal reality with a dazzling blink.