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Hopestar Chapter 2
Posted By: sam_fisha<sam_fisha@yahoo.com>
Date: 9 January 2005, 10:40 PM
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The Hopestar chapter two, Escaping while trapped:
The Hopestar slowly pulled away from the planet as it accelerated and began its journey away from any known Covenant. Following it were six large colony ships hovering majestically in the light of the red sun. The Captain watched the view screen as the Hopestar began to pull away from the other ships. Surrounding Fel five, the only planet in the Fel system which could support human life, were three cruisers, a frigate and five orbital super MACs.
The Captain knew these would never hold when the Covenant came, he would never understand why the ONI wouldn't let the fleet come with him. All the civilians on Fel five would easily fit on the three cruisers. But the ONI, as it had assumed the duties of FLEET COM, wanted to hold on to Fel as long as it could. The Captain shifted in his chair uneasily at the thought of ONI being the only form of government, he had always distrusted them ever since the loss of his first ship, the cruiser... The Captains musing was cut off by his console beeping wildly. He glanced at it and noticed it was a communication from FLEET COM, priority alpha. He pressed a few buttons and ONI officer Stanfield appeared on the view screen. "I hate to rush you Captain, but you'd better hit a jump NOW!" Stanfield yelled as computer terminals behind him beeped frantically. "What's happening?" The Captain asked.
"A Covenant fleet has been seen approaching Fel five; they will be at us in ten minutes." Stanfield said as he typed on a command console. "How many ships?" The Captain asked. "You don't want to know, just leave, now, before they can track you." The screen turned black as the Captain and the bridge crew quickly went about their tasks. "ALL CREW ON ALL SHIPS, THIS IS TH CAPTAIN, PREPARE FOR IMMEDIATE JUMP, SAME COORDINATES!" He yelled into the mic for the entire colony fleet. He waited as the crew typed frantically. Now only luck could keep them alive.
ONI headquarters on Fel five:
Stanfield watched his monitor as the Hopestar fleet disappeared into a slip space void and the monitor quickly changed to a looming Covenant fleet. The ships looked like large purple and blue whales that slowly approached through the void of space. He turned from the monitor and watched as other ONI officers bustled about giving orders and typing commands. What's the point? He thought. We don't stand a chance.
He turned back to his monitor and watched as the some two hundred Covenant ships approached. All five orbital MACs fired and their projectiles collided with two of the lead ship which crumpled and folded in on themselves as they burned. The rest of the forward Covenant ships fired large balls of plasma at the nearest human cruiser, the George. It was hit along its side and explosions pocked along it as it grew lifeless.
The other cruisers fired their MACs and followed with a volley of missiles. By now the orbital MACs had charged and fired in a staggered formation at the leading ships. The ship board MACs hit first and disabled one ship before the archer missiles converged and destroyed a Covenant frigate. Something is wrong. He thought to himself. The ships rush lifelessly, and they aren't using Covenant battle tactics. He tapped some keys and his camera zoomed in on one of the lead ships, which hadn't been hit yet.
He saw a large hole in its side and zoomed in on it. It looked like plasma damage. He leaned close to his monitor as he saw something he couldn't believe he saw. The hole was patched, with what looked like flesh and organs. He tapped the magnification key one last time and his fears were confirmed. The hole in the Covenant ship was walled off by flood biomaterial. He gasped. I thought they were contained on the Halos! He thought frantically as he tapped the command to get an alpha priority channel to all units. His monitor flicked to show the words 'All channels open'. He gathered his courage and spoke with authority. "The Covenant ships are infested by the flood; all ground units are to prepare to detonate novas when the flood touch down on the planet, all Captains are to order self destruct when their ships or stations are boarded." He flicked off the channel and leaned back in his chair as he heaved a heavy sigh. For him the war would be over in a bright flash when the flood landed on the planet.
On the Hopestar in unexplored region of space:
The Captain struggled out of his cryo tube and shrugged into his clothes. He glanced around and saw hundreds of others do the same. After their short escape jump the Hopestar and its fleet had entered a long jump into an unexplored and hopefully uninfected by Covenant region of space. He walked to the bridge as the rest of his crew manned their stations. "How long has it been?" He asked. "Uh, sir?" One of the crewman responded. "Yes crewman." The crewman shrugged. "A little longer than we thought, it's been anywhere from five to twelve years!" The Captain straightened in his chair with all the nausea from the cryo thawing suddenly subsiding. "WHAT!?!"
"At least five years sir, I'm checking now." The crewman said as he checked several statistics. His console buzzed to life and began emitting a high pitched squeal. "Sir, three Covenant cruisers off our port bow." The crewman yelled. "Show me." The situation screen blinked and flickered and suddenly showed three long purple ovals hovering in the distance, seemingly lifeless as they floated through space. "They must have followed us sir." The crewman said as he watched the screen intently. The Captain stood and walked over to the screen. "Magnify on the nearest ship." The cruisers in the view screen leapt forward until one took up the entire area. "It looks heavily damaged..." He remarked as he observed several holes along its side. "...Any chance they're dead in the water?" He asked the crew. "I'm not sure sir, sensors are inconclusive." The Captain turned and walked to one of the consoles an Ensign was manning and leaned over his shoulder.
"Tell the other ships to get behind the Hopestar, and get a squad of Marines on that ship."
Corporal Trudy ran through the dark halls aimlessly, turning and turning as the corridors seemed endless. The lights flickered in a useless attempt to regain life as they illuminated the room for a split second before dying again. Trudy continued to run as he heard hundreds of footsteps behind him. Shambling footsteps, uneven footsteps, nearing footsteps. He turned another corner and found himself facing a locked door.
A glow of red light ran its edges as it signaled its refusal to open. A refusal to safety. Trudy drew his pistol as he turned and put his back to the door as the footsteps drew closer. His breathing was erratic and his heartbeat resounded in his ears like gunfire. He consciously slowed his breathing as he huddled in a corner, hoping the things would pass by without noticing him.
He readied his pistol as the footsteps grew so close he felt as if he could touch the sound. His eyes searched the corridor for any means of escape but found none. The lights flicked on again and the hallway was illuminated showing what was a Marine Trudy knew standing five feet from him. The Marine's head hung loosely from its neck as if the creature that had taken his body thought the head were some kind of wart. His left arm was formed into some kind of flesh whip and his right had its fingers elongated with extra tissue, its legs shot off at strange angles making it unbelievable the thing could walk. The creature's chest was ripped open to show organs sitting uselessly as strange growths overtook them.
"DIE!" Trudy yelled as he pulled the trigger on his pistol. Hot lead jumped from the gun and leapt into the creature, which growled and jumped forward while bringing its whip-like arm back and snapping it forward. The whip collided with Trudy's leg and cut to the bone. He cursed and continued to fire as the creature struck his leg again and again. Trudy jumped sideways and fired the last round in his pistol at the creatures head. It exploded into chunks as the creature continued after him without any thought as to its head being blown off. Trudy ejected the clip as he ran full speed down the hall. Pain shot through his leg but he continued to run, propelled by the fear of the creature.
He turned a corner and found himself falling through air. He screamed as he collided with some sort of thick clumpy warm liquid. Thinking it was coolant Trudy turned to any light he could find, which was above him where he fell from. He looked around him. He was standing waist deep in this liquid in a room which the darkness made seem endless. But it seemed he had lost the creature and that was good enough for now. He waded to a rising and sat on it. He breathed in deeply as he relaxed and was overtaken by the most horrendous smell he had ever smelled before. It was worse than rotting corpses after a battle and worse than the fleshy unearthly smell of the creatures. He reached into a vest pocket and produced a lighter which he flicked and ignited.
The room sprung into view, the room barely a foot above his head and the room ten feet in every direction with a hole in the ceiling where he had fallen through. He looked at the liquid which seemed to be some sort of black sludge. Breathing in the smell he realized what it was. A cesspool. He thought. I fell into a fucking alien shit pool. He cursed in his head. It was still better than being out there with those things. He decided to breathe through his mouth and realized it was a mistake. The smell was so bad he could taste it. He felt along his leg and saw it was cut to the bone in the front and the bone itself was fractured. He reloaded his pistol and stared at the ceiling. How the hell did this happen? He thought to himself as he winced from the pain in his leg.
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