Long Far Gone

by A-P-A

Interlude: A place to call home

Unexplored Ring segment A1-3, EQ Pegasi 1, 23/04/3098 Earth date

It was cold, oh so very cold. Ice crept across every available surface, slipping between the nooks and crannies of a thousand inert rocks. It was usually cold in space, but this was a different kind of cold. An artificial cold.

From between the sterile asteroids flashes of colour could be seen, beams of red and orange light reflecting apon the frost ridden boulders. Though muffled and inconsistent, the belt provided enough atmospheric density for some sound to permeate the otherwise enduring silence. The whirring and whistling of machinery, coupled with clanks and fizzes of metal colliding with metal. A symphony of foreign and alien sounds that were out of place in this peaceful environment.

In a paticularly bright flash, a silver sphere emerged from the forest of rock. Flanked by a pair of angular machines, it sped onwards, leaving the frenzied battle behind. They dodged an weaved around meandering debree, hugging close to avoid detection. They were being hunted. In the shadows to their right, a set of glowing eyes flickered to life, followed by a sharp chirping. A war cry.

Four flared shapes fell from their ambush point, speeding towards their prey at a frightening velocity. Their wings extended threateningly, as each unleashed a barrage of crimson light, homing in on its target. The pursued reacted immediately, flaring their fins as a pair of lethal sentinel beams charged. The slap rifle rounds ricochet off their protective shielding and impacted the hard ice, sending up a spray of white powder that clouded and disrupted optics.

Taking advantage of their momentary cover, the Sentinels discharged their weapons, firing hot orange beams through the smoke screen. Without checking to see if they'd scored a hit, the group fled further into the ring system. Harpies hot on their tail. A rain of solar energy blasted apart the rocks as cracked shrapnel flew in random directions, bouncing off shields and brushed alloy. A series of high pitched chirps signalled the approach of reinforcements as a massive flock of tapered androids rallied to the hunt.

"Oh dear oh dear oh dear, it seams we may be outmatched..."

The trio dodged another volley, ducking under a massive asteroid. A swift push from a tractor beam sent it hurtling towards their attackers. The satisfying crunch of glass and metal rang out as the harpies smashed off the worn basalt. The field was getting thinner the further they travelled, the space between stray rocks increasing. This allowed them more freedom to move, but also less cover. A searing bolt shattered the left aggressors shield. It swerved to avoid the follow up shot, but wasn't quick enough, taking a hit to it's dorsal fin. A trail of smoke erupted from the damaged drive, slowing it's speed exponentially. It didn't matter, they were almost at their target. The rings finally gave way to a clearing, revealing the lilac gas giant they were satellite to.

"There..."

In the centre of the clearing, drifting ominously, was just the thing she had been searching for. Her relief was short lived however, as a flood of Vex began to pour out of the belt behind them. They encircled the forerunner units, forming an impenetrable barrier of metal.

"Give it up Exuberant, your forces are no match for me!"

A blue figure emerged from the masses, her arms and legs held aloft by an unknown energy.

"Surrender yourself, and I promise to make your destruction quick..."

They were surrounded, no way out an all sides.

"And don't even think about running, there is no way you will ever, be getting on that ship."

'That's it, just keep talking...' She thought.

"What's it going to be then, the easy way, of the hard way?"

'Just a few more seconds... If I had fingers they'd be crossed...'

"Well then, hard choice it- What is that?"

A low buzz could be heard, emanating from somewhere behind them. The hundreds of harpies readied their weapons at the source of the noise. It was getting closer and louder by the second, it couldn't have been more that a few meters away. A single constructer came into view, slinking round the side of an asteroid.

"That's it? That was your plan. I truly have overestimat-"

She was cut short as the damaged aggressor smashed into her, sending shards of shrapnel off in a large explosion. The metal shredded the nearby harpies optics, sending them berserk. They blindly sprayed solar rounds in every direction, taking out many of their peers. Now in a state of panic, the Vex didn't take much notice of the impending doom that was apon them. A swarm of Sentinels flew out of the field, smashing through the confused cyborgs, slicing them to pieces with their beams. A spray of needles from an enforcer cleared a large enough gap for Exuberant and her remaining unit. She escaped the chaos of the battle and headed straight for the center of the clearing, where her prize was waiting.

From an outside perspective, the carrier looked in moderately good condition. She could definitely see what looked like MAC impacts on some of the lower levels. Should be to hard to fix. One of the hangers looked to be depressurised, that meant it could be an entrance. She raced towards it, intent on finding out the state of the ship's drives. Exuberant didn't know how much longer her Sentinels could keep the fight up. She entered the hanger, swerving to avoid a decoupled seraph that had entered her path.

"Come on, where are those terminals. Aha!"

Blinking near the hanger doors, was am insert panel to the ships systems. She quickly moved towards it, taking care to avoid a sea of floating crates. She reached the panel and began to sync up with the ships firmwear, nothing to difficult thus far.

She was in, and a quick check of the main system showed that the slipspace drives were still in decent condition. Many of the decks had hull breaches and a large amount of the gun emplacements were crippled. She simply sealed and vacuumed damaged decks, ejecting the irreparable ones, as for the guns, they could be replaced later. She began the charging sequence for the two functioning drives, breaking through an infinitely complicated encryption process as she did so, before taking control of the foreward plasma lance.

Exuberant signalled her Sentinels to fall back, watching as they fled towards the shining silver vessel. Once they were clear, she charged up the plasma lance and...

Nothing happened.

She tried again and was met with the same result, a whine as the weapon failed to discharge. Why? The ship diagnostic showed lances one, three and seven were fully operational, what was wrong with this one? A glance at the operations menu she had created left her rolling an eye.

"Of course the the ship of religious crusaders and murderers would have a safety."

With a lazy flick of s virtual switch, she gave it another shot. The weapon charged up, plasma building in it's batteries. This time however, it reached a critical point, staying at maximum power. A large, stereotypical red button appeared on the system holopanel, begging to be pushed. How could anyone refuse?

There was a massive eruption of sound as a superheated stream of star matter sped forth from the cannon. It met the advancing cloud of Vex with brutal speed, spreading though their numbers with ease. Anything within its path was instantly vaporised, what remained was melted into a black, shining glass that rippled and cracked from the extreme temperature gradient.

The slipspace drives showed full power, and a portal began to form at the ship's bow, warping the space around it into a mixture of blurred stars and dancing gas. Slowly the ship began to move though, disappearing from sight. In a futile attempt to halt their progress, a splinter group of damaged Vex attempted to rush the fleeing vessel, but were met with a barrage of plasma shells from the ship's point defence. In a final blink of light, the pointed tail vanished through the wormhole, leaving nothing but a static cloud and an untraceable wake.

At the edge of the clearing the surviving Vex force began to regroup. Nowhere near their former numbers, but still enough to continue their task.

"Well Exuberant, a stand corrected, I guess you really are just as crafty as I remember. But don't you worry, supercarrier or not, you will pay for what you took from me..."

Comments

[Twilight Archon]

Another super carrier?? I thought there was only three built with only one surviving in orbit around Equis?

[A-P-A]

7961574

It's a flash back, maybe I should have made that clearer. It's when Exuberant first descovered the Long Far Gone.

Sorry about that, I'll add a time stamp to the chapter opening.

[A-P-A]

7961574

Done, maybe that will make it a bit more clear when abouts the chapter occurs. Again sorry.