"Godammit he's too good!" Narayan shouted over the intercom. "We are going out of remote
piloting range. I have to resign the ship until we get closer."
"Damn!" Echoed Culexus and Drekken simultaneously. "Get up to the bridge Nar," Drekken said, "then you can do the rear guns." Culexus heard the sound of Narayans comm going dead as he left for the bridge. The Tigris would join the defenceless fleet.
Culexus hammered on the throttle, but he could go no faster. Beating his instruments in fustration, he looked up, tears in full flow, as his face was lit orange by explosions. Over 100 ships. How many would die before he got there?
"How long until we get to weapons range?" He asked as composedly as he could.
"One minute, maybe more." Culexus looked down at his feet.
"Increase fleet speed to 150% efficiency, and don't tell me about
safety! It's a lot safer than that TIE!" No reply came, but Culexus
knew Drekken had done what he asked.
50 seconds lasted an eternity. The inhabitannts of the Ranthar watching as 1, 2, 3, up to 13 explosions flared before their eyes. And they couldn't do a thing, as their friends and colleagues died. All of them helpless, asleep. Some as young as 5.
"He's breaking off his attack." Narayan said. "He's gonna try to take
us out first."
"Let him try." Said Culexus, the last of the orange light fading from
his eyes, leaving them black and dark, glistening with the result of
Imperial attrocity.
The TIE turned and headed straight for them, unleashing random fire at the formations ships. Culexus Dodged all the blasts but one, which hammered into the Ranthars navagational and communications systems.
"Drek. Now." He said. And looked on as Drekken unleashed a perfectly
aimed single shot at the TIE's engine. It exploded with roaring sound
to everyone except Culexus and the crew of the Ranthar. All they heard
was their own thoughts. Thoughts about what had past.
"Pilot up." Said Culexus.
He dissapeared upwards as the ship returned him to the bridge. None
of the three could bear to look into each other eyes.
"How long before we are out of range of any possible pursuit?"
Asked Culexus, not looking up.
"2 hours and a bit. But if they sent anything else, it wont catch us
at this speed. Unless they do not want to go back to their mothership."
"Let's all take some time to ourselves." Suggested Narayan. "We all have
to deal with what has befallen."
"Yes. Computer, restore autopiloting." Said Drekken.
"NAVAGATIONS WILL ONLY BE AVAILABLE FOR 3 HOURS. DAMAGE SUSTAINED TO
NAVAGATIONS IS IRREPARABLE AND CONDITION IS DETERIORATING."
"Damn!" Drekken exclaimed. "Tell the fleet to reduce speed and return
to original formation."
"COMMUNICATIONS ARE ONLY AVAILABLE AFTER 6 HOURS. DAMAGE SUSTAINED TO
COMMUNICATIONS IS REPAIRABLE BUT IS DETERIORATING FASTER THAN POSSIBLE
REPAIR SPEED."
"Holy shit." Narayan looked at Drekken, then Culexus. "We
have lost contact with the fleet, and in 3 hours, we lose navagation,
we lose the way to the chosen system..."
"This is bad." Drekken sighed. "The fleet will continue at an unsafe speed
to the planned sector. Computer, are we still connected to the other
armed ships?"
"AFFIRMATIVE. DURATION OF REMAINING CONTACT UNKNOWN."
"Navagations can only follow the fleets known course for 3 hours." Culexus said hoarsely.
"Then we have to do our best to follow them until we get communications
back, but the unarmed ships go faster than our armed ones. How long
before they would be out of radar range at current speeds?"
"4 hours 36 minutes..." Drekken said in a whisper.
"Then we can't follow them. We have to look over the information we have,
and settle in a system as close to the chosen one as possible, while
still being well out of Imperial territory. Computer, display all known
information on planned course."
"INFORMATION IS INCOMPLETE. PROBABILTITY OF LANDING IN PLANNED SYSTEM
USING CURRENT DETERIORATING DATA: 1.2%"
"Damn." Narayan whispered. "What are the chances of us landing in a
system within communications range of the planned one?"
"14.8%. GIVEN CURRENT SPEED, SHIPS WITHIN COMMUNICATIONS RANGE WILL BE
UNABLE TO REACH EACH OTHER DUE TO FUEL DEPLETION."
"This just gets worse!" exclaimed Drekken, "They're just kids! They'll
get butchered by heaven knows what civilisation or local monsters!"
"They know what they have to do. They have weapons too, and hopefully,
in this part of the galaxy, there are no civilisations like the Empire."
Drekken looked at his feet. "So we do the best we can, then enter deep
sleep as planned and let our deteriorating navagations drop us somewhere
as close to the fleets ships as possible?"
"It seems we have no choice."
"That is really not good." Said Narayan. "But Culexus is right, we did all
we could. Let us go and mourn those lost to us. Computer, warn us of when
navagations are about to fail autopilot."
"AFFIRMATIVE NARAYAN."
So they did follow the fleet until it dissapeared in the distance, slowing down
because the Tigris had fallen behind the faster ships. Then, after they had regained
comms and locked the Tigris into formation, they entered deep sleep,
not knowing when or where they would wake up. And not knowing where
their brother and sister children of Dominius would be, when they did.
GO BACK TO THE LEGENDS INDEX
ARE YOU KIDDING!? WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!?!?