Sinners of Tyre: Prologue

Twin suns rising above flourishing, green trees moved by sea breeze, illuminating a small town covered in a gentle morning fog. Clean, blue sea eagerly breaking its waves against the cliffs, standing strong against its blows. Flocks of birds playfully gliding between few taller buildings peaking above the fog, in the gentle breeze, shyly accompanied by leaves dancing along. Beautiful scene of a fleeting memory...

Medbay, normally quite busy, was deserted at this time. Sch'Lvya, a gray-scaled, black-patterned female Bas'Ilean medcorps officer, wearing a black bodysuit which kept her serpentine, cold-blooded body warm underneath a white-red uniform, sat on her chair, leaning against the desk and staring at a postcard with her tired, blue eyes. Having finished treating the marine squad after their last mission and disposing of medical waste, she finally had a moment to take in the silence, with only the company of distant stars and colourful nebula behind the window. The memories of dawning suns shining over her homeworld, of the feeling the warmth made her feel, flooded her. She tried to at least spiritually go back, sliding her scaley hand across the slightly yellowed and crumbled postcard. It's been years of constant war with the Draghodii Hierarchate, stuck in hastily welded metal cans flying through the stars with little to no shore leave. For months now, Sch'Lvya has been the sole medic of an Imperial Dreadnought, taking care of its marine detachment. With each deployment, she treated the scarred soldiers, to the best of her abilities, constantly having thoughts about what if she stayed back on Bas'Aqash in the back of her mind.

As much as she'd like to sit back and relax, reports won't fill themselves, she hissed and reached towards her computer station. With few presses of a finger, a holographic screen appeared in front of her. However, just as she started compiling the report sheets, the medbay doors opened, startling her.

- Mind if i come in, doc? - Limping and holding his bandaged side, a well built, toned, bearing a black striped pattern on his blue scales, Bas'Ilean male wearing a black bodysuit and a blue, marine shirt strolled into the medbay.

- Na'Rov... - Sch'Lvya rolled her eyes softly and perking up her cobra-like hood. - Didn't have enough of me yet?

Marine would chuckle, gasping silently, since laugh caused his wounds to sting, as he made his way past the medical berths, towards her desk.

- Sch'Lvya, ekhm, I mean... Aquiles. - He coughed, setting a paper cup in front of her, steaming, with a rich smell coming from it. - A little thank you for patching me up.

- Is that... - She flickered her tounge over the cup, smelling a strong smell of coffee. - Coffee? How did you manage to get it here?

- Ha! Wouldn't you like to know. - He chuckled. - Serpent Mother's providence so to speak.

Sch'Lvya raised an eyebrow, looking up to the smiling marine from her chair.

- Providence, huh? And not war spoils? - She giggled herself.

- Call it however you want, ma'am. - Na'Rov laughed along with her.

- How's your wound, you were hit pretty badly in last raid. - Sch'Lvya would look at his bandage, then back at him.

- Stings like a bastard, but I'll live, thanks to a certain professional at work. - He smiled to her, waving his flat, paddle-like tail tip.

- Don't mention it. - She waved her hand at him humbly. - Take it easy, plasma-based wounds take a while to heal, even if treated immediately with healspray.

- About that... - He looked down shyly, smiling. - Could you prescribe me something for the pain, Schee... I mean ma'am!

She chuckled, sliding on her chair towards a nearby cabinet.

- I'll get you 5 grams of Rosa-Verda. - She reached into one of the shelves, picking up an inhalator and a green vial, handing both to him. - Take it easy now, rest up, and don't sniff everything at once, you'll knock yourself out.

- You're amazing, doc! - He took hold of the prescribed relief medication. - Thanks Schee.

- It's my job to keep you boys in working order. - She smiled warmly, taking hold of the coffee cup. - Thanks for the caffeine, I'll need it.

- You don't look too bright lately, something's up? - Na'Rov looked at her with a concerned face.

- I've been patching you and other marines way too often as of late, Centurion is riding the Draghodii trade ships like mad, and I haven't caught a lot of sleep lately.

- Hah! That he has. - He inserted the vial into the inhalator. - But that isn't the real reason, is it?

Sch'Lvya sighed, looking down and then back to the reports she started to fill in.

- No, no it's not. - She took a sip of the coffee, sighing with a shivery breath, setting the cup down slowly afterwards and taking hold of the postcard again, looking deeply into it.

- Is that... - Na'Rov sighed, rubbing back of his head after realising what the postcard shows. - Bas'Aqash, was it?

While on commerce raiding missions, Imperial Dreadnoughts maintain radio silence, to prevent tachyon detection by enemy scanners. Due to that, crew is effectively cut from communications with outside space.

- Yeah. - She sighed. - I hope they are okay.

- I'm sure they are. - He smiled, setting his hand on her shoulder, reassuringly. - Just imagine how scared your folks are about you.

- Now that you mention it... - Sch'Lvya set down the postcard and looked up to Na'Rov standing over her desk. - You're right.

A moment of silence passed, Sch'Lvya sighed and took another sip of the coffee, before getting up from her chair.

- How about your clan? - She looked to him with a brief smile. - I heard Bas'Mara has very nice beaches.

- You heard right! I do miss spending evenings with my folks, watching the starry sky, swimming in the warm waves. - Na'Rov started to get lost in his imagination. - Ahh, got to finish this war soon, kick the drakes where sun don't shine, then have a beach BBQ to end all beach BBQs.

- That does sound good. - She chuckled. - Don't forget to send me an invite.

- I won't, don't you worry about that. - Marine let out a bellowing laugh. - Lets hope we'll get a comm-buoy this month, I wouldn't mind a holo-call with home.

- I wouldn't mind one either. - She ran her hand along her hood, sighing. - Now if you won't mind, I got reports to write.

- Ofcourse Schee. - He bowed to her respectfully. - Take it easy now, and don't worry, Serpent Mother has plans for everyone of us, remember that.

Sch'Lvya bowed back to the smiling marine, letting out a sigh once he limped out of the med-bay. She stretched her back and tail, and with slow steps approached the window, setting her hands against the cold glass, her breath appearing as vapour of steam, covering up her reflection. It's been almost 17 years since all this began and she left her clan for the war effort. She wasn't the only one who left her home and family to combat the Burning Crusade, a brutal campaign of the Hierarchate, with no clear goal spoken of. Imperial fleets were crushed and routed in the first weeks of the conflict, leading the war to turn into bloody battles for each world, as Draghodii meticulously invaded system after system.

The adoption of massive, two and a half kilometer long dreadnought-class ships, like the Qar'Ma, allowed for long range commerce raiding, sabotaging Hierarchate's logistics and putting their plans of galactic domination on hold, allowing the Imperium to build up defences and reorganize its tattered main fleet. Ships like this could intercept smaller ships, destroying them with an array of kinetic batteries, without trading damage. Outfitted with a quantum drive, dreadnought could get a jump on enemy trade convoys, and before Draghodii could react, cooldown period would have long passed, allowing for safe extraction. A contingent of marines aboard, with a company of heavily armed Autonomous Assault Drones could board most enemy ships, taking them over and plundering anything of value, before scuttling the wreckage. Unrestricted commerce raiding is what allowed to cripple Draghodii armadas, in turn letting the Bas'Ilean legions turn the tide.

- Greetings Aquiles Sch'Lvya. - A communication hologram appeared at the side of her desk, accompanied with a robotic voice.

- Yes, Max? - Sch'Lvya kept her forehead against the cold glass, slightly annoyed at having her train of thought derailed by ship's AI, she sighed, turning around to face the hologram. - What do you need?

- Centurion requests your attendance on the bridge, at your soonest convenience.

- Tell him I'll be there soon. - She slowly stepped away from the window, and sat down on her chair again.

- As you wish, Aquiles. - Comm link disconnected soon after AI finished its sentence.

Serpent sighed, looking through medical reports from the recent deployment, compiling a full spreadsheet for the commanding officer. She rubbed her tired eyes, while clicking through pages on her holographic computer, before taking a long sip of coffee given to her by Na'Rov. Qar'Ma's crew was ethnically diverse, consisting of individuals hailing from every corner of the Imperium. Caring for such a varied crew was difficult at times, as different sub-species require different approach to surgeries. Thankfully, the ship's AI was outfitted well enough to assist in preserving crews wellbeing.

Few minutes passed, before Sch'Lvya uploaded the compiled reports to a tablet, layed beside her computer station. She took a long look at the stars behind the window before getting up from her chair, taking hold of the small device in the process. Claws of her three-toed feet clanged against the metal floor as she stretched her long body. With an average height of two metres and a long tail, Bas'Ileans were one of the largest sapient species in the galaxy. Afterwards, she led her steps outside of the medbay, doors automatically opening in front of her approaching form. Main hall welcomed her with the same, cold metal walls and floors, illuminated with white lights in the celling. Simple, but very barren interior, quite understandable for a warship, especially built and equipped during times of war austerity. Brisk walk through the hallway later, she found herself in front of the elevators, main hall being the central area of the crew zone, it had an array of lifts and trains leading to all other levels and facilities of the ship. Bas'Ilean ships, despite their size, don't hold large crews, in turn, the facilities manned by crewmembers are relatively small. All other areas, accessible only through maintanence tunnels, consist of all weapon systems, the AI Core, thrusters, reactor, etc. formed a shell around the crewed zone, maintained by AI controlled drones or assigned service crew.

Sch'Lvya entered the elevator, clicked the holographic button leading to the bridge and sighed. Doors closed soon after and the elevator started moving up. In the few seconds she had to herself, she fixed any kinks and folds of her uniform and the bodysuit wrapped around her pear-shaped serpentine body. Right before the elevator arrived, she took a deep breath and perked up her hood, holding the tablet at her chest. Elevator chimed and sliding doors opened, allowing her to step out. The dreadnought's bridge was quite spacious, with windows all around it. In the middle, surrounded by several workstations for officers and operators, was a large interactive, holographic map, with a round table around it, and swivelling captain's seat in front, at the helm. Sch'Lvya approached the Centurion, who is the commanding officer of the vessel. Old, battle-hardened captain, wearing a gold, ornamental armour over his bodysuit and a tyrian cape, sat on the seat by the map, looking through current situation.

- Not a moment too soon, Aquiles. - He spoke with his raspy voice, without getting up or looking away from the map, staring at it closely.

- My apologies, Centurion. - Sch'Lvya bowed respectfully and set the tablet on the table in front of the captain. - I've compiled the latest medical reports.

- Ah! Perfect. - His hand took hold of the tablet, taking his sight away from the map, and towards Sch'Lvya standing at his side. - I wanted to have a word with you.

- MAXIM-E has informed me about your request. - She took a quick peek at the map, showing latest movements of Draghodii trade vessels. - Is there anything specific you'd like to talk about?

- I wanted to personally thank you for your service. - Centurion got up from his seat, as an elder, several hundred year old Bas'Ilean, he stood a head taller than Sch'Lvya, he gave her a bow, that she immediately returned.

- Of course, Centurion.

- Although I didn't expect anything else from an apprentice of Ro'Tozk, good to know that old man still has an eye for talent. - He chuckled, slowly walking around the map, his ornamental armour clanking with each step.

Sch'Lvya smiled softly, reckoning the Centurion has a history with her supervisor, who oversaw her training in the medcorps, after she left Bas'Aqash for the war effort.

- You reckon our boys will be ready soon? - He asked, while approaching the window facing the bow of the dreadnought.

- With all due respect, sir. - She walked closer to his side. - Our marines need good few days of rest, especially Maior Pilus Na'Rov, he got wounded quite badly in the last deployment.

- I'm afraid it won't be possible. - Centurion crossed his arms, looking out to distant stars, shining through nebulous clouds, in which dreadnought is concealed.

- But sir. - She tilted her head, trying to reason with her commander.

- I've recieved top secret communication from Legate Val'Qar, something big is brewing over in S'Sol System. - He looked to his side, down to Sch'Lvya.

- Excuse my curiosity, Centurion, but what do you mean by "top secret communication"? - She flickered her tounge quite anxiously. - And why would you share it with me?

- I need to know that our marines will be ready for...

While about to continue his sentence, clank of another set of claws grew closer. A younger, cobalt scaled female Bas'Ilean wearing an engineer colour-coded orange shirt over her bodysuit, bearing an alloy prosthetic left arm approached Sch'Lvya and the Centurion.

- I'm sorry for intruding, but you called, sir. - She spoke quite sheepishly, bowing down to the Centurion, and to Sch'Lvya afterwards.

- Ah, Maior Pilus Aq'Lara, right on time. - He returned the bow along with Sch'Lvya who raised an eyebrow soon after, being somewhat confused. - Please, take a seat by the table, Aquiles, you too.

Aq'Lara perked up her pointy muzzle and smiled softly to Sch'Lvya, who nodded along. Two females took seats next to each other, while Centurion awaited more atendees.

- Hey Sch'Lvya, you look like... - Aq'Lara thought about a correct analogy. - Like you haven't slept in a week!

- Very observant. - She gave her a faint smile while shaking her head. - You don't look much better yourself.

- Hah! - She'd chuckle, rubbing back of her head. - Centurion was keen on asking about the state of our tank drones. I've been fiddling with them for days now, Max gets rowdy when they ain't in shipshape condition.

- Sure, an AI will be upset about the scorched and dirty plating. - Sch'Lvya smiled while shaking her head. - It doesn't have anything to do with the chief engineer being pedantic.

- Shush, I'm not pedantic. - Aq'Lara blushed softly, crossing her arms and looking to the side. - It's just attention to detail.

- Just remember to polish the armour plates after you weld them, we want our tanks to look smashing while rolling over the Draghodii.

- Will be ready for a parade right afterwards!

Centurion tapped his claw against the table, bringing the two ladies to order. While they talked, an array of other officers and section leaders arrived and sat around the table.

- Okay, ladies and gentlemen. - He cleared his throat, while clicking several times on the holographic panel at his captain's seat. - This is it, after almost twenty years, it's time to bring the fight to the Hierarchate.

A map of the local galactic sector appeared in the middle of the table, with the position of the dreadnought marked inside a nebula.

- We recieved intel, that Draghodii are amassing their fleets for a decisive push, and we know, that their rally point is here. - Map zoomed into the Procyon system. - From there, they are meant to jump into S'Sol, where Legate Val'Qar has gathered the legions.

- How can we face off the entire Hierarchate armada? - Aq'Lara asked.

- That's the point, we won't be facing their entire force at once. Intel has also mentioned, that the Draghodii vanguard will jump into S'Sol before the rest of their ships, to secure a staging ground for their offensive.

- How do we know that this is true? - Sch'Lvya crossed her arms, perking up her hood.

- Intel we recieved is very specific, from a trusted source. We aren't the only dreadnought in this sector acting on it, other ones are also harassing Hierarchate's operations. Each has targetted logistics of a different group, to buy us time.

- Time for...? - She raised her eyebrows.

- Destroying their wayship, after vanguard jumps into S'Sol. Their first fleet will be stranded in our territory, up for pickings by the Legions.

- Sir... nobody has ever destroyed a wayship, let alone got close to one... - Aq'Lara, quite confused rubbed back of her hood.

- Then by the Serpent, we'll be the first! - Centurion hit the table with his fist. - MAXIM-E has counted the trajectory required to puncture the shields, armour and cause the wormhole generator inside the ship to collapse in on itself.

- Collapse on itself?! That will cause a massive EMP blast, it will fry all our systems, including Max's core! - Engineer got up from her chair.

- Calculations suggest electro-venting should shield the ship enough to be prevent major damage, extracting safely using the quantum drive possible approximately 30 minutes after initial impact. - MAXIM-E spoke out of the speakers, with its robotic voice.

- That... could work... The magnetic field created by... - Aq'Lara started to mumble to herself, monologuing scientific terms.

- We'll only have a short window of opportunity, one shot at this, so I expect everyone at their best. - Centurion sat down on his seat. - We move out in about an hour, dismissed.

Crewmembers left the bridge one by one, having some whispering chatter between them. Atmosphere in the room has grown heavy with seriousness of the situation. Sch'Lvya got up from her chair and walked slowly towards the elevator before being interrupted by Aq'Lara.

- Hey, uhm... - Engineer stopped her in her tracks. - Would you mind giving me a med check?

- Of course, is your arm acting up again? - Sch'Lvya tilted her head softly while looking down to her shorter crewwoman.

- Sometimes... When I get nervous... - She looked down to her feet shyly.

- I get that, this situation is quite... nerve-racking so to speak. - Medic turned towards the elevator and continued walking. - Come with me to the medbay.

Aq'Lara nodded, rushing her steps. Both Bas'Ileans entered the elevator, Sch'Lvya looked to the engineer who was shivering at times, tapping her claws against the floor.

- Something's up? - She asked, while pressing a holographic button.

- I... - Her cybernetic arm twitched, sending a few sparks out.

- It's about your brother, isn't it?

- Yes...

- Did you hear from him when we got a comm link last time?

- Yes and no... kind of... I don't know.. - She rubbed back of her head.

- Hmm? - Sch'Lvya raised an eyebrow.

- It's hard to get through the concrete wall that is the Archivarium when you want to talk to one of them, but I was told that Aq'Sal is on one of the ships in S'Sol...

- I see. - She nodded, as elevator reached the main level.

- By the Serpent... I can't fail now... - Aq'Lara stood in place, looking down, even as doors opened.

- You won't, I'm sure. - Sch'Lvya gave her a soft elbow nudge. - Come on now.

Engineer gave a bleak smile back, crossing her arms and following Sch'Lvya to the medbay. As news spread among the crew, normally quiet and calm main level of the ship was bustling with crewmembers rushing around. After a short walk back, doors opened automatically, uncovering the medbay just as it was a while back. Sch'Lvya led Aq'Lara past medical berths, and pointed towards one of the hydraulic chairs.

- Plop on that one, I'll start up the system.

Engineer nodded, approached the chair and gently set herself down on it, looking for a comfortable position, her tail coiled around her feet. Sch'Lvya went to her chair, and rolled over to the seated patient. Few clicks on a panel at the side of the hydraulic chair activated it, unfolding several screens, aswell as a connection module.

- Have you got a wireless chip? - Sch'Lvya asked.

- Heh, nope. - Aq'Lara smiled softly. - Just good old fibreglass cable.

- I see, what plug you got installed? E'Silon, or maybe Yo'Ta?

- Uhm... USB-X - She rubbed back of her head.

- Damn, where you got that arm from? - Medic reached towards nearby cabinet, looking for correct adaptor.

- Got it quite cheap from a human cobalt dealer back on Bas'Ilea.

- A human, huh? - Sch'Lvya took hold of a specific adaptor and closed the cabinet. - Explains the fifth finger, but how did they manage to get it to work with Bas'Ilean physiology?

- Thing is, they didn't. Had to tweak it myself, but I probably messed something up.

Aq'Lara clicked her wrist on the prosthetic arm, opening a flap with a retractable cable, which she handed over to Sch'Lvya, who took it, and applied the adaptor to the plug.

- I always hated plugging in... gives me the shivers. - She gulped.

- Hmm, you and your brother are from Bas'Ilea? - Sch'Lvya tried to take her attention away from the plugging into the system.

- No, actually, we used to live on Bas'Toroq... - Aq'Lara closed her eyes, trying to relax. - Small town in the southlands...

- What kind of weather you get there? I heard it rains less than on Bas'Ilea.

- It's sunny, quite warm, our clan has a quite large.. AH! - Aq'Lara grabbed herself by her temples with her right arm, when Sch'Lvya plugged in the cable in the connection port.

- Apologies. - With a few clicks on one of the screens, she started up the system scanning. - You were saying?

- Y-yes... ugh... - She shook her head, sighing as she tried to relax. - Our clan has... or had a quite large farm, that's where I picked up tinkering, fixing up our machinery.

- Hmm, I see, I see. - Sch'Lvya looked through tabs on Aq'Lara's hardware. - You never shared how you... ekhm, lost your arm.

- Ah, not much to say really. - She rubbed back of her hood. - It was years ago, I pulled Aq'Sal out of a burning barn during first days of invasion, arm was damaged beyond healing and had to be amputated...

- Sorry to hear that. - Sch'Lvya's face was illuminated red, by error codes appearing on the screen. - Hopefully you'll get a new, proper arm when war is over.

Aq'Lara nodded while smiling softly, meanwhile Sch'Lvya read through the errors that popped up.

- As much as all hardware connections between the arm and your nervous system are tethered correctly, it appears there are a few conflicting software prompts. - Sch'Lvya leaned back in her chair, then slid closer to the prosthetic arm. - MAXIM-E, can you make sense of the programming, seems to be in some funny human alphabet incompatible with automatic software translator?

- Of course, Aquiles. - Hologram of Max appeared on one of the screens. - Rewriting 3TB of Trirekhian software into Bas'Ilean programming code will take approximately 7 seconds.

- Wonders of quantum computing. - Aq'Lara grinned, while Sch'Lvya chuckled.

- After Max is done, I'll clean and lube up your servo's and nerve connectors, should run like a dream. - She said, while reaching to a different drawer in the cabinet, grabbing a can of implant-friendly lubricant.

Lights on Aq'Lara's arm lit up, as overwriting process took place. Engineer herself tried to relax, closing her eyes and resting her head on the headrest.

- Maior Pilus, I've taken the freedom to additionally add a translation layer that will allow you to take full control of the fifth finger of your arm. - Hologram lit up as the process finished.

Sch'Lvya unplugged Aq'Lara's cable and took off the adaptor, allowing the cord to retract back into the prosthetic arm's cable port. After it disappeared behind the metallic lid, medic sprayed lubricant into each servo of the arm, aswell as in and around nerve connection ports, which connected the prosthetic with Aq'Lara's nerves in her shoulder. Having done that, Sch'Lvya closed all service flaps of the robotic appendage.

- Wow, my arm feels... - Aq'Lara moved her arm around, wiggling each of the fingers individually, including the fifth, despite Bas'Ileans only having four by nature. - So much better! Thank you so much, doc, and you too Max.

- Our pleasure. - Sch'Lvya smiled. - Now you should get back to your post.

- Of course, thanks again. - Aq'Lara grinned widely as she got up from the chair. - Stay safe, Schee.

- You too.

Engineer rushed out of the medbay, leaving Sch'Lvya by herself. With the while she had left until battlestation call rings, she put away all the tidbits she used on Aq'Lara's service. With a few button presses, screens retracted, and armchair systems disengaged. Sch'Lvya walked towards the windows again, taking a look out. She thought of how most of the crew treats her like a big sister. Being older, she tried to take care of them the best she could, being a shoulder to lean on for them. Suddenly, rumble of fusion thrusters sent vibrations across the ship, making its hulking form move. Heavy metal shutters dropped down, covering up the windows and blue lights indicating incoming quantum jump, illuminated the interior. Sch'Lvya sat down on her chair, taking a deep breath, as buzz of motion dampeners engaged.

The quantum jump drive, installed on all ships large enough to house both enormous housing of the drive, aswell as an antimatter reactor along with it's annihilation cells, was the pinnacle of Bas'Ilean scientific advancement which allowed for instantenous faster than light travel, along quantum tunnels appearing in the void of space. Interior motion dampeners are required however, to keep the crew alive through a FTL jump. Fueled by extremly volatile antimatter annihilation cells, Imperial ships could traverse space in a literal blink of an eye, as long as the ship's AI was able to calculate and chart a nearby quantum tunnel to a desired system. All other members of the galactic community seen antimatter as a fool's errand, a dangerous at that, but the Imperial Science Institute pressed on, in time giving the navy a perfect weapon to face off against the Hierarchate.

World around blinked, as ship jumped to the Procyon System. Blue lights in the interior turned off, returning a normal white hue. Motion dampeners buzz ceased, as they disengaged, ship's interior shook gently. Sch'Lvya booted her computer station, tuning the communications to open channel and looking through ship's cameras, hoping to spectate the situation.

- Jump to Procyon System successful, all systems nominal. - MAXIM-E spoke, reporting to the Centurion.

- Perfect, hold the drive discharge for now and run a tachyon scan of the system, let's hope we're on time. - Centurion said, with a hopeful tone.

- Gravitational anomaly of great magnitude in close vicinity, Centurion.

- Everyone man the battlestations, our time window is extremly narrow.

Dreadnought fired up its thrusters, heading towards the gravitational anomaly. All six towers of triple barreled kinetic batteries powered up, along with the main railgun, which ran along the middle of the entire 2.5km long ship. Anomaly soon appeared to be a wormhole, maintained by a massive, bulky wayship of the Hierarchate.

- There it is! MAXIM-E, charge up the railgun and approach the target at pre calculated trajectory. - Centurion assertively stated the orders.

- Affirmative. Centurion, sensors indicate three more smaller signatures, Draghodii frigates are moving in to intercept.

- 30 degrees to port, forward power to starboard turrets. You may fire when ready.

Qar'Ma changed its heading, while bow, stern and both starboard turrets turned to aim at the frigates of the rear guard, which defended the massive wayship. Draghodii escort formed a loose formation and attempted to close in the long distance to the assaulting imperial dreadnought, while the first salvo of tungsten core - copper capped rounds left the barrels of its kinetic batteries. At long range, Bas'Ilean artillery had the upper hand over the Draghodii plasma casters, which, deadly at close range, were almost incapable of dealing any damage to a heavily shielded and armoured dreadnought, as plasma dissipated with distance. As difficult as landing a hit with a relatively small artillery round was, kinetic batteries fired with frequency high enough to create a dense barrage at general heading of the enemy ship, preventing it from dodging all shots. Frigates of the Hierarchate attempted manouvers, while shooting balls of concentrated plasma back at the dreadnought. Dissipated energy of Draghodii shots splashed against the shields with small amount of force, the same however couldn't be said about artillery shells of Bas'Ilean cannons. Soft copper cap of the round propelled to a fraction of light speed splashed against frigates shields, overpowering them, while the tungsten core penetrated the bulky armour of the targets superstructure. One of the frigates exploded almost instantly as its hull was cracked by several shots, sending two remaining ones into more hectic movements.

- Centurion, we have several gravitational anomalies appearing in the vicinity.

- Do we have any readings on them?

- Several wormholes are being created by void drills, hundreds of signatures are appearing on the sensors.

- By the Serpent, it's the Draghodii armada! What do we do Centurion? - One of the fire control officers spoke in terror.

- Full forward, another barrage at the frigates, then resume approach at the wayship.

Closing the gap, Draghodii frigates are finally able to deal damage with their plasma casters. Bursts of energy splashed against dreadnought's shields, overpowering them and causing them to flicker. Quick rate of fire of the frigates sent tons of plasma at now exposed hull of the Imperial ship, setting fire to its decks inside. However, up close, the secondary batteries of lower caliber on the dreadnought opened up, quickly dealing with the Hierarchate ships, snapping one in half and causing a massive explosion in the other.

- Centurion! We got an array of Draghodii assault carriers approaching, but... - Navigational officer spoke confused. - They aren't engaging...?

- This is our chance, close up, bow at the wayship, engage the railgun.

Qar'Ma, with minor damage turned back to face the wayship maintaining the wormhole to S'Sol System. Railgun powered up, causing the lights on the entire ship to go red.

- 50%... 65%... - MAXIM-E counted up, as the dreadnought turned off its thrusters, only slowly correcting its heading.

- Hang on people, shoot and engage quantum drive discharge on my command.

- 80%... 95%... Railgun ready.

- Fire!

Railgun propelled a thin tungsten rod with an antimatter warhead to incredible speed. Like a needle to a balloon, shell in half a second punctured through wayships shield and armour, penetrating inside it's hull. Right before annihilation reaction of the warhead occured, quantum drive discharge shoot lightning bolts out of the dreadnought, creating a temporary electro-magnetic field. Explosion in close vicinity to Draghodii wayship's Novacore broke its vulnerable containment. Massive supernova explosion engulfed the entire system, as the wormhole, along with the wayship collapsed in on themselves, shaking the entire dreadnought. Sparks shot out of all electronics aboard, electrocuting Sch'Lvya, who flew out of her chair and slid on the floor before hitting the wall nearby.

Some time has passed, fire extinguishing systems have been engaged for a while. Medbay was pitch black and filled with smoke, illuminated only by lights flickering irregularly, aswell as electronics sparking. Sch'Lvya cought, while gasping for breath started to crawl on the ground towards nearby cabinet. Her eyes reddened as smoke irritated them, she erratically digged through a drawer looking for an oxygen mask. Not being able to find it, she pulled the drawer out of the cabinet, and threw its contents on the ground. Finally, she found the masks, quickly put one on her serpentine face, and pulled the latex straps around her hood. As soon as she did that, the mask hermetically sealed to her scaled skin and the oxygen tank filled her lungs with fresh air, which she gasped for, coughing out all the smoke, which was filtered out. In another drawer, Sch'Lvya found an earpiece module that she could attach to the mask, allowing her to use the radio. Before leaving, she took hold of a first aid kit, in case she sees an injured crewmember.

- Is... is anyone there? Please come in! - She heard a familiar voice on the radio.

- Aq'Lara, is that you? - Sch'Lvya said, while cautiously walking towards the medbays door.

- Thank the Serpent, Sch'Lvya! - Aq'Lara rejoiced. - Spent so much time trying to get anyone on the radio.

- What happened? Can you give me a report?

- I knew it will go to shit, Max had to miscalculate something, maybe the size of the supernova core on the...

- Quit the engi talk. It's really not the time. - Sch'Lvya opened the door, main deck was on fire, she however could hear sounds of a handheld fire extinguisher through the smoke. - Did you manage to contact the bridge?

- No, I tried, but got no callback.

- Alright, I'll try to get there on foot.

Sch'Lvya kept walking by a wall, when she saw Na'Rov doing his best to extinguish fires in the mess hall.

- Na'Rov! The fuck is going on?! - She screamed to him.

- Schee, good to see you in one piece. - He coughed.

- There, put this on. - She said, while throwing a spare mask at him.

Na'Rov put it on and took a deep breath, before going back to trying to extinguish the flames engulfing the area. Seeing him closer, she could see a very bad, bleeding burn injury on his side and tail.

- You're hurt! - Sch'Lvya opened the first aid kit and grabbed a healspray can, which she applied to Na'Rov's wounds.

- Tis' just a scratch. - He hissed, as the spray foam got in contact with his flesh. - The fires are getting worse! What do we... - An explosion rock the ship heavily.

- Look for any surviving crew, take them to the strongroom. I'll try to get to the bridge.

- Bridge?! The power is out and everything is on fire!

- If we don't leave this place, we might all be dead anyway. I need to get to the Centurion!

- Agh! Fine, grab a fire extinguisher, I'll escort you to the... - Another explosion shook the deck.

- Na'Rov, do as I say, it's an order, I'll manage.

- Yes, ma'am. - He gave a brief bow, before walking off to look for other crewmembers.

Sch'Lvya fought her way through the flaming, smoke filled corridors towards the elevators leading up to the bridge. Power flickering, the lift was offline and its doors closed. Sch'Lvya smashed the hologram projector panel with the empty fire extinguisher and then short circuited the cables, forcing the doors open. Shaft was empty, it appeared the cabin was all the way up at the bridge. With the elevator out of action, she was forced to climb the ladder, all the way up. Explosions shaking the ship weren't helping her, almost throwing her off.

- Hey, Sch'Lvya, come in. - Her earpiece sounded with Aq'Lara's voice.

- Ugh, yeah, what's up? - She stopped to catch a breath.

- Finally found the faulty wiring, I'm gonna run a bypass and get the power going again! Right.... now! - She said excitedly.

However, Sch'Lvya wasn't excited to hear that. Elevator hanging above her head creaked and started sliding down. Erratically, she looked for a crevice in the wall, with no success.

- Fuck! Turn off the elevator! - Panicking, Sch'Lvya started to climb down the ladder, escaping from the elevator.

- Which one? Several started moving just now.

- The bridge! The bridge one! - Elevator was coming closer and closer.

- Y-yeah... which one is...

- Quick! - Sch'Lvya was low enough to jump down at the bottom of the shaft and layed down as flat as she could.

- And... Done! - Elevator stopped just in time, softly squishing Sch'Lvya's body down.

- N-now... - Her heart was running, steam of her breath covered the inside of her face mask. - Move it... back up...

- Sheesh, can you decide what you want? - Aq'Lara said.

- Fuck... off...

Elevator moved up allowing Sch'Lvya to breathe again. She ripped off the bottom hatch of the cabin and climbed in.

- You alright? What happened there?

- Let's not speak of it. - Sch'Lvya layed on the cabin floor, leaned against the wall. - Can you tell me what's going on now?

- The Draghodii sent several ships at us, opened fire a while back. Most of our guns are offline, so is Max. Thrusters are on fumes, as deuterium has leaked out.

- Alright... any good news then? - She said, while clicking a button to go up to the bridge.

- Shields are up again! And the annihilation cells are intact. Quantum drive is offline but not damaged, I can't do anything about it without Max. - Aq'Lara listed out the report sheet. - It would also appear that Draghodii... stopped firing for some reason?

Lift has arrived to the top and its doors opened, however, as soon as they opened, along with the shaft door, Sch'Lvya was pulled out by decompressing air. She coiled her tail around the hatch hole in the last second. As soon as air got sucked out through a large, gaping hole in the bridge's hull, Sch'Lvya heard nothing beside deafening silence, as she started to float. Artificial gravity gave up once hull of the bridge ripped. Thankfully, both her scaled skin and bodysuit kept her body safe from the void, while the hermetic mask protected her eyes, nostrils, mouth and ear canals.

- Lara...? - She said, almost speechless.

- Yeah? What's up?

- Everyone is... dead. - She floated out of the elevator, taking a look around.

- What?! What happened?!

- Bastards must've hit the bridge, hull breached, everyone suffocated or got spaced...

- W-what now?! - Aq'Lara said, as her panic set in.

- Calm down. - Sch'Lvya, constantly holding onto furniture, floors or walls, floated towards the captain's seat. - We need to find out who's in command now...

- By seniority... that... that'd be you... ma'am.

Sch'Lvya gulped, but clenched her fists soon after, taking the responsibility for safety of her crew, just like she did as the ship's medic.

- Prep for quantum jump, take the engineering crew to the strongroom, I already sent Na'Rov and the marines there.

- B-but... Max is offline, we can't jump without it!

- I'll get the AI Core back online, you just get to safety.

Soon, Sch'Lvya found the frozen, bleeding corpse of the Centurion. Slowly, she took hold of it, drops of blood floating out of his body as she pulled it closer. She went through his uniform, securing the master key, required to enter the AI Core without issues.

- Schee, Na'Rov here. - She heard Na'Rov in the earpiece.

- Y-yeah...? - Sch'Lvya gulped, pushing away the frozen corpse of the deceased commander. - Give me a sit-rep...

- I gathered the surviving crew. Got a few marines too, we're guarding the strongroom from a few... - He got interrupted by gunfire.

- Na'Rov?! - Sch'Lvya quickly floated back to the elevator shaft, shiverring from the cold.

- Don't worry, I'm fine... bastards, we got some Draghodii aboard, trying to take over the ship.

- I sent Aq'Lara and the remaining crew from Engineering to you, keep them safe while I restart the AI Core.

- AI Core...?

- We can't jump out of here without Max.

- Alright guys! Set up a perimeter and watch for friendlies!

Sch'Lvya climbed back into the elevator shaft and closed the doors. Artificial gravity came back on, making her fall on the floor. Along with that, air pressure slowly increased, as that bit of the ship was still pressurized. She ripped out the top hatch of the elevator and jumped up, climbing through the narrow hole. On top of the lift cabin, she looked for one of the air ducts. Being unarmed, she wanted to pass by the Draghodii marines that boarded the ship, while making her way towards the closest airlock into the service area. She ripped off a grate covering an air duct, and squeezed into it, being an air duct it wasn't too spacious. Slowly, she crawled forwards through the tight, metal duct. In a slippery and cold tunnel, she soon found herself sliding down, hitting a wall at the end of the duct, cracking it with her weight and falling out of it, onto the floor.

Sch'Lvya gasped, moaning from the pain, while sharp edges of cracked, thin metal scratched her uniform, lacerating her scales, bits of blood dripping through her bodysuit. Having caused quite a stir, she heard steps coming closer, along with grunts in a language she didn't understand. She bit her lips and almost instantly got up, quickly hiding behind the corner of the corridor. Sch'Lvya couldn't stop herself from peeking however, and soon, her eyes saw a hulking form appear from the smoke. Plasma blade illuminated the dusty corridor in a blue hue, as the massive Draghodii marine looked around, inspecting the noise, seemingly struggling to fit in the tight corridor. Their armour clanked heavily with each step, as they roared, embers coming out of their throat. Sch'Lvya held her breath, slowly backing off, rushing away as silently as she could. She walked through the corridor, away from the enemy, before she heard another roar, coming from the other way, echoing in the metal tunnels, like as if responding to the first one. It would seem the Draghodii are hunting for survivors. Sch'Lvya stealthly walked through the tunnels, before arriving at a crossway. With the corner of her eye she noticed a fellow crewmember slowly crawling towards her, however, as soon as she tried to help them up, a massive, clawed hand came out from the smoke and grabbed the tail of the crawling, injured crewman. Survivor screamed and hissed as he was pulled away, while the Draghodii roared at Sch'Lvya, calling for attention of other soldiers. Flames flew out of their maw, which she barely dodged. She started to run as fast as she could, while another Draghodii came up from a corridor to her left. Her claws clanked and scratched against the metal floor, as she ran for her life. Pursuing raider wasn't able to catch up, so they took out their plasma pistol, shooting at Sch'Lvya and aiming at her legs.

- Na'Rov here, something seems to have distracted Draghodii attention, they pulled back a few soldiers.

- You don't fucking say?! - Sch'Lvya screamed, while only her serpentine agility saved her from balls of scorching plasma flying at her.

- Wait, are they...? - Na'Rov spoke, but she couldn't answer again.

Sch'Lvya slid behind the corner and kept running, when a second later a Draghodii chasing her flew at the wall, crashing into it. Her sight was met by a flickering light of a service airlock through the smoke. She jumped inside, and as soon as tip of her tail got inside, the doors slammed shut.

- Never seen you run, not like that. - Aq'Lara's voice sounded in her earpiece.

- Fuck this shit... - Sch'Lvya took the mask off, gasping for air, having emptied the oxygen can.

- You got two of them camping outside the door, trying to find a way in.

- You... you don't have a quantum drive to set up? So you watch the CCTV?

- Drive is up and ready, just waiting for the coordinates from Max. We're gonna go to the strongroom now, thanks to your distraction, we can pass safely.

- You are... welcome...

Sch'Lvya got up and looked around. She was in a service air lock, one of the few that connect the interior crew deck, to outside systems like weapons and AI Core. Shell of the ship that surround the pressurized area was an open air system by design, preventing a catastrophic cabin depressurization when shot, aswell as allowing the AI's quantum computer to run at near absolute zero. Sch'Lvya needed to climb into a service suit, to shelter her body from the cold and lack of atmosphere of space. Normally, air-tight Bas'Ilean scales allow for limited survival in depressurized conditions, but her bleeding wounds would lead to a painful death in zero gravity and no atmosphere conditions. The suit was white with orange pattern, airtight, with a quite large backpack, that contains air tanks, aswell as small rocket engines that allow for traversing zero G areas. First, she put the master key into a pocket of the suit, after which she put it on, arms and legs first, while after sliding her tail into the tail sheathe, the suit sealed itself. Sch'Lvya sighed and grabbed a helmet, which she put on, sealing the environment of the suit. With a pull of a lever, airlock started to depressurize and afterwards, the door to the service area opened. Artificial gravity turned off, allowing Sch'Lvya to fly out of the airlock. Crawlspace of the service area was a labirynth of cables and pipes, with only a few flickering lights illuminating the darkness. Thankfully, helmet of the service suit had a flashlight built in. Sch'Lvya looked around, trying to make sense of the area, finding a way to the AI Core room. Hull of the dreadnought had several breaches, through which she could see the distant stars, aswell as Hierarchate ships surrounding the vessel. Enemies seemed to stopped their bombardment, as they attempted to capture the imperial dreadnought. That decision gave the crew a short window to attempt an escape, since even a Draghodii tractor beam couldn't stop a quantum jump. Sch'Lvya followed one of the coolant pipes, which soon, led her to massively armoured bulwark of the AI Core. Floating around it, she took a moment to find a hatch inside, which she needed the master key to open. She took the key out of a pocket and inserted it into the lock, which caused the hermetically locked AI Core to open.

- Alright, Aq'Lara, Na'Rov, I'm in the AI Core, are you safe?

- Yes ma'am, Engineering crew just got inside the strongroom, we're still holding the perimeter, waiting for you. - Na'Rov spoke.

- I'm... I'm not coming back. - Her voice stuttered, as she very slowly floated into the AI Core room.

- What?! What do you mean you're not coming back? - Aq'Lara barged into the comms.

- There's no time, I'll tell Max to vent the deck, that will get rid of all the bastards on board.

- But... quantum jump without motion dampeners will... - Aq'Lara whimpered.

- I know.

- Schee... - Na'Rov tried to say something.

- Serpent Mother has a plan for all of us, remember? - Sch'Lvya forced a smile while grasping ejected AI fuses and reinserting them back into their outlets.

- I... I remember...

Through the suits glove, she grasped a turned off lever of the absolute zero coolant, and pulled it. AI Core started to freeze up, as quantum computer turned on.

- AI Core online, Multithread Autonomous eXecutive Intelligence Matrix - E'Silon operational. - Sch'Lvya heard in the earpiece. - Aquiles, I'm grateful for reinstating me, vital sign scan present that you are in command now. I apologize for miscalculating electromagnetic abilities of the quantum drive discharge.

- That's... not important now. - She tried to scratch ice off of her glass helmet. - Chart a quantum jump now.

- Where to, ma'am?

- Sho'Ileon System... - Service suit has started to freeze up, limiting Sch'Lvya's movement.

- Schee... everyone is in, and the strongroom is sealed... - Na'Rov said, trying to stay calm. - May the Serpent be with you...

- Likewise, get everyone home safe... - Sch'Lvya started to shiver as coolant from leaking pipes engulfed her suit. - Max, vent the deck.

- Draghodii lifeforms infiltrated the ship, proceeding with the venting process.

- Now... take us home...

Blue lights came up, as a buzz of motion dampeners initiated, this time, more quiet, as Sch'Lvya was away from their influence.

- Quantum drive engaged in three... two... one.