The Betelgeuse prowled forth like a hunter aiming his rifle. With all of the calculations at hand, the shot would shoot tall for several miles before adjusting to the gravity and curvature of the planet and hitting the enemy with the full force of a megaton shell. A laser could be used with the same setup but would require a shorter distance for similar efficiency. No, the macro cannon would use its solid slug to kill, firing with a magnetic burst.
The ship stabilized to make the shot. Zoldyck took gravity and the planet's curvature to estimate the shot. Accuracy was at 98%, chance of penetration at 76%. So long as the Lone Wolf stayed in Battle Station mode, they won.
The whole bridge went red.
"Missiles incoming!" Zelda yelled.
"What!?" Reynolds checked the map. Multiple signatures from all directions were heading their way like a pack of sharks smelling a speck of blood in the water. "Emergency disengage! We need to maneuver!"
"Moving drones to intercept!" Ritz went wild on his command console. In the space around the Betelgeuse, the probes honed in on the malicious signatures and rammed them, causing detonation. The explosions lit up the bridge cameras. Some were coming closer than expected and large enough to cause serious concern. The number of blips was reduced. "We have a pack of them southwest down!"
"Park! Punch it!"
Park manned his helm and propelled the ship with a curve, using everything in their starboard engines to course correct from the sheer power of the rear engines. The missiles gave chase, but the Betelgeuse managed to present its full side profile. Point defense weapons opened fire en masse, lighting the skies beneath them. Each successful burst blew one out of space, but the Betelgeuse's shields still took a wallop as blazing-fast shrapnel plunked off its hull.
"Missile numbers are reducing," Zelda reported. "Fifteen, ten, eight, five." Explosions kept rocking the sky. "Two, one, eight more!"
From the opposite end, more signatures popped up, blindsided the Betelgeuse. The point defenses went on full blast, trying to eliminate each one but in a flurry of ammo. A wispy, black needle snuck through the cloud.
A split second of terror overtook the bridge. The Betelgeuse shuddered under the impact. Shield generators hit their maximum capacity, and a heaving of the hull created a popping sound as the second impact blew away something. The bridge was alight with warnings and emergency codes.
"Hull breach in section 290!" Officer Morsi announced, his voice echoing over the comms channel. "Sealing off bulkheads now! Extinguishing fires on decks two and five! Captain, the hangar's integrity has been compromised!"
"Get those men out of there!" Reynolds ordered. "I'm not letting our men die in the vacuum of space!"
"Sir! Enemy fighters are approaching!"
Reynolds held to his station and watched as more signatures swarmed his ship. There was no denying it. The EVO's feint had performed flawlessly. It rolled over Reynolds like a crashing wave. Foolishness! They knew they were here from the warp portal! It wasn't a standard procedure on the part of the aliens. They knew in advance! Reynolds recoiled as a second explosion rocked the vessel.
The Lone Wolf remained unmolested over Lia. The cold quiet of the upper stratosphere buzzed to life as its hangars disgorged what looked like a school of fish. They spread out as if following an ocean current and descended down to the Venezian-style city, with its walls and barricades, citadels, and watch towers. They were relatively small, compared to the superstructure, with a sound that resembled a low choir hum. Their movements turned into patterns and then into circles.
The populace could only gaze up in awe of the flowing wonder until it looked like it was raining. It wasn't unusual for the city to rain, but it was hot and fast, and upon contact, it melted through Pandemian flesh, searing and splitting body parts as it fell, and the long-lasting stone structures across the city smoked and caught fire by molten chipping damage. Even the oasis waters steamed and burned under the weight of the rain. It was a rain of death, the first demonstration of EVO pulse plasma fire.
Once panic, fear, and chaos had taken over, the flowing stream of ships came down close enough to reveal their true forms. Under the bleeding smoke emerged open-top gunboats, long and metallic with a cold, violet shimmer. They were piloted by the visage of lanky monkey-like beasts behind an opaque canopy, while its top was lined with rails and seats for its occupants.
These Herders landed across the city and dispensed their troops at speed. Aliens of all kinds unharnessed from their hovercraft and dove below. The main species of this invading force caught the Pandemians off guard. In the dense smoke, their silhouette seemed humanoid, but on closer look, they were true reptilians, a mesh of purple and black scales with digitigrade legs and a mawed, dinosaur-like face. In their hands held the small but deadly plasma rifles, and streets were grounded down by snapping pulse fire. Fearing no smoke and fearing no fire, these creatures hunted, their eyes bearing no pity or acknowledgment, only a shot of dopamine anytime they made a kill.
Other creatures stalked the city in lower numbers. Some were like bipedal bovines, walking tanks with weaponry strapped onto them set to auto-aim while the beast used its strength to smash buildings unencumbered. In a similar role, large but squat t-rex like creatures added to the fire with their incendiary breath, controlled by smaller kappa-like beings on their backs. The last major faction was made of long-armed hares, few in number, and lagged behind to gather captives in their arm sacs. They left the slaughter to those who were built for it.
The force was small. Perhaps only twelve hundred alien creatures in total, but within 20 minutes, they spread across the oasis city, destroyed their battlements, toppled their walls, razed and burned with all of their firepower, spending munitions like water because many were that efficient. Whoever survived an encounter with them was rounded up and stuffed into the hare's sacs. Within half an hour, hundreds were squirming and suffocating in these creatures, a dozen per mule, captured as their stuffed torturers returned to designated boats for extraction.
At the helm, aboard the lone wolf scout vessel, dubbed in their language as Flock-37, the ship's administrators watched over the battlefield. They were also rabbit-like, limber, and long-limbed with long-standing ears and an orn on their foreheads. These overseers watched the battle occurring above on 3d hologram displays while the rest kept up with the cruiser's functions in their sphere-shaped bridge.
"Master," a reptilian strode in, its voice a harsh, inhuman hiss. "We have obtained specimens from the settlement below. The city's palace will fall within the hour."
"Keep doing as you please," the leader said, waving him off. "But maintain composure, Ruki. This is a training hunt. Do not squander your potential."
The Ruki understood and left, its face twisted in contentment from such wise words."The human vessel, Shipmaster," one of the bridge crew reported. "We've scanned the shape of its making. It doesn't match any of our previous foes, but it threatens us in Kainian."The imp brushed his chin fur. "Is it…advanced?"
"Our fighters scoff at its finesse. We will continue the skirmish."
"Very excellent," The Shipmaster nodded. His chest swelled with pride. The lessons taught by his predecessor proved fruitful. Humanity was never one to fight fair. Their penchant for hiding disgusted the EVO, as they were cowards, and the EVO was not. Therefore, the solution was simple. If humans were going to try and sneak, have a finger on the trigger. Even with the element of surprise, spaceship-heavy weaponry was slow by cosmic standards. There was no way he would pillage freely without having his bases covered. The hunter would instead be the hunted. "Any ground forces?"
"We heard their birds not far off. This valley reeks of humans, but a suitable target we see."The Shipmaster took one look at the visual of the city of Rydia, its palace on the desert rim, and its majesty made him hungry. "That looks most rewarding. Wake the main cannon on it. Have the steerers practice with all the human hives as they wish. We will wipe the humans from the surface."
The Lone Wolf adjusted itself in the air with its hover generators, twisting and adjusting itself in mid-air into a pinpoint angle. The ship whirred with life as the tip of its needle-shaped hull opened up to reveal a barrel for the massive pulse laser. This was Armageddon, the ship deleter of the EVO navy. Inside, the ship's gun and navigation crew lined an angle against the vulnerable section of Rydia's desert shelf and locked on. The ship floated above the clouds to make it as it fought with the curvature of the planet, but at three hundred kilometers, it could see its prey clearly. Energy brewed inside the needle, slowly building up power until it was flickering like a star in the sky.
"Ready the dampeners, my herd," the Shipmaster pronounced as he held control of the firing trigger. "As we pronounce to our Shepherd, thank you for this human death."
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