FREESPACE 2
MASQUERADE
SEASON TWO
EPISODE TWO

CHAPTER ONE

 The void of space engulfed the wing of Hercules mark two heavy assault fighters, that silently slipped through the night in the Capella system.

 “Commodore, this is Captain Diedrich we’re approaching the Gamma Draconis subspace node,” one of the pilots stated.

 “Sir,” a female pilot aboard one of the Herc MKIIs began,” Why would this cruiser be in Gamma Draconis, there’s nothing in that system…”

 “Don’t ask me Gamma three,” Diedrich replied.
 
 Omega then spoke,” Alright kids, I’ll take the lead, make sure not to get yourselves killed, if you do scream real loud so I know I’m alone, gotcha?”

 “Roj,” Diedrich replied, while rolling his eyes.

 A shimmering portal erupted and engulfed the Commodore’s fighter, for a moment it was within a subspace corridor, only to be spat out into truespace, followed by other vortices that’s end points were in formation with his.

 Omega saw through his cockpit massive pieces of debris, which passed by to reveal the hulk of an Aeolus class cruiser, which it’s front had a marking, the symbol omega, which then slowly began to glow hot blistering red.

 “Damn… damn… damn…” Omega swiftly said over the intercomm,” All fighters, pull hard and clear!”

 At the moment he finished speaking, a massive crimson beam of energy spewed from the superheated hull of the cruiser, only to be followed by the entire frontal hull shattering into debris.

 When the heat and explosions subsided, the crimson beam vanished, though the space around it distorted for a moment due to the extreme heat and energy.

 “My god…” Omega said, his eyes wide open in fear,” this lost generation… has just been… found…”

 “What the hell is that?” Diedrich responded, his fighter came to a full halt in space pointing to the massive vessel that came into view.

 “Whatever it is,” the Lt. who spoke earlier began,” It’s about the size of one of our Deimos, and that configuration is… unknown…”

 Omega’s mouth was moving, but no sound came out, but slowly his message became louder and louder,” Get the hell out of here… get the hell out of here… get the hell out of here… NOW!”

 “Sir?” Diedrich asked.

 “You heard me… RETURN TO THE EXCALIBUR IMMEDIATELY!” Omega screamed.

 At the moment he spoke, a massive energy beam sliced through half of Diedrich’s Herc MKII’s hull, his fighter was left drifting, but he managed to regain some control.

 “All pilots, engage subspace drives…,” Diedrich weakly ordered, though his fighter was critically damaged the jump drive was fortunately functional.

 The wing of fighters designated Gamma quickly scattered to avoid the volleys of energy beams and then jumped out of the Gamma Draconis system.

* * *

 Aboard the Excalibur’s bridge Captain Stashef had a grim look on his face,” Why haven’t we had any word from Gamma wing?”

 Paula Morrison turned towards Stashef,” I don’t know… I hope that they…”

 She was interrupted by a chiming noise from the navigation hologram device, she hit a button and the sound dissipated, however an image appeared in the center of the navigation hologram, which faded away. The new image was full of static that was interrupted by a symbol of a horse with wings upon it rotating, with the text below it, ‘GTCv Pegasus’ a voice began to speak, though muffled by the static,” This is Captain Melissa Shema of the GTCv Pegasus, we are within the Epsilon Pegasi system, and under attack by Neo-Terran forces.”

 “Damn,” Stashef spat from his mouth,” We must respond to all distress signals due to BETAC, we’ll have to… search for Gamma wing at a latter time.”

 Colonel Morrison swallowed, but she then turned about and spoke to the bridge crew, all of which were manned at their stations,” Helm, take us about… set course for the Pegasus’ distress beacon.

CHAPTER TWO

 The Excalibur emerged from subspace, the region of space it entered was dark, and nearly devoid of any stars that’s light beckoned through the void, the windows on the Excalibur’s hull brought forth a vast amount of light into space.

 Blackened, charred, debris lazily drifted past the destroyer, until a vast hulk came into view.

 The hulk was that of a Deimos corvette, and suddenly a massive arc of energy surged through it’s outer hull.

 “My god…” Paula Morrison stated while she starred through the Excalibur’s bridge at the vessel,” This is going to be the last straw for the NTF…”

 “These eighteen months of simply holding our borders and trying to keep it from spreading are over…” Stashef mumbled.

 “Sir I’m detecting something on sensors within the debris field, unknown silhouette,” an officer stated.

 “What the hell do you mean by unknown silhouette?” Stashef responded while glancing at the officer’s console,” What is it? It’s clearly a ship, fighter sized, but it’s almost arachnid…”

 “Whatever it is,” Colonel Morrison responded while starring through the clearplast windows of the bridge,” It’s moving… fast.”

 Stashef turned about and glanced where Paula was starring, his eyes narrowed and the then spoke,” I think I can see it… it’s almost like it’s…”

 Stashef was interrupted by the brilliance of a subspace vortex opening before his eyes, an officer quickly spoke,” New jump signature… unknown configuration…”

* * *

 The wing of damaged Hercules mark II fighters sped through the Capella system.

 “This is where the Excalibur should be, the rendezvous coordinates…,” Diedrich stated.

 “Well it isn’t here,” The Commodore gruffly said,” But I am picking up a faint subspace catalytic reaction trace, and I think I can vector it…”

 At the moment he finished speaking the unknown corvette that attacked the fighters earlier emerged from subspace and began firing it’s multiple beam cannons at the fighters.

 “Damn, all fighters take evasive action!” Omega screamed over the comm system, followed by the members of Gamma wing scattering to avoid fire.

 The third fighter in Gamma wing turned about and went on a direct strafing run of the corvette’s hull, firing all of it’s weaponry into the vessel;

 “Damn it lieutenant,” Diedrich hollered,” Take evasive action!”

 “I’m buying you time damn it..” the woman responded.

  “I almost have the jump vectored… just a few more minutes..,” Omega calmly stated.

 “We don’t have a few more minutes!” Diedrich screamed, his voice became hoarse from the strain.

 As Diedrich was speaking, he saw a beam cannon tearing through the hull of the pilot that was attacking the corvette, her vessel was vaporized so swiftly that she didn’t even have time to react.

 At that moment Omega saw that same vessel being destroyed, and his mind drifted from the present conflict.

* * *

 The Commodore was a young man, seated within an Elysium transport which just lifted from the surface of Mars, he could see faint whisping white clouds and a hint of a blue sky over the red world, and small scattered lakes darted the surface of it, forming shallow seas.

 The transport sped through the night and his face turned towards a woman the same age as him, she was speaking to the other people within the transport, and he could hear that it was her fear of the Vasudans projected as hatred towards Terra and it’s so called oppression of the colonies. If we were oppressed by the GTA, when why have they funded for over sixty years the terraforming of it?

 The transport briefly entered subspace, but exited it briefly and he saw the sight of the sun bristling over the earth, and then a massive Arcadia installation came into view, the GTI Antaeus, which housed the GTA league of defense field training systems.

* * *
 The Commodore’s thoughts then shifted violently towards another time, he was within the cockpit of an Apollo space superiority fighter, and in his wing was that same woman on the transport which led to the academy.

 He glided through space near the hull of an Orion class destroyer, the GTD Bastion, the newest flagship of the fleet.

 Beside the Bastion was the GTD Eisenhower, which engaged it’s subspace drive followed by the entirety of the 4th fleet.

 Omega jumped following the fleet, and emerged near Aldeberran VI, a large barren world.

 A massive jump point opened, and a Vasudan warship of un-preceded size emerged, a battle began which lasted for what seemed to be an eternity, that same woman he met so long ago attempted to buy time for the Gorgon class bombers being launched from the Eisenhower, however she in her daring strafing run was killed by a Vasudan fighter that escaped the later to be Commodore who swore to protect all of his squadmates. With her death, soon came the destruction of the Eisenhower and the 4th fleet.

* * *

 The Commodore’s mind shifted one final time, he was on the surface of Mars, and the dim sun was high in the sky, he wore a thick cloak, common for those who lived on that world because of it’s sand storms and strong gusting winds.

 He looked down at a tombstone, which was only one of hundreds of tombstones, long abandoned and being torn by the sands of Mars and the sands of time. The Commodore then looked over the horizon, at the endless wastes of dunes and sand, which were his home.

* * *

 Omega shook himself violently, hot plasma seared near his hull from the corvette, but he did have the jump vector and then quickly muttered over the intercomm,” This is Omega, I have the coordinates input them to your nav systems, 412 by 317 by four, emission frequency zeta”

 Following his communiqué, the pilots of Gamma wing and their damaged fighters entered subspace, followed by the Commodore.

CHAPTER THREE

 Omega’s fighter jumped into truespace, and he saw the behemoth that formed the Excalibur’s engine array, he carefully navigated around the engines and grazed over the main hull enroute towards the fighterbay.

 “This is Commodore James Smith, callsign Omega, Excalibur I need landing clearance,” his message was responded with static.

 “Damn it,” the Commodore swore under his breath,” This is Omega, if anyone’s home open the damn fighterbay doors and move the breakables… I’m coming in…”

 His fighter lunged sharply at an angle towards the fighterbay that protruded from the bottom of the ship’s forward hull, he quickly tilted the fighter to fly directly into the bay, where a loading arm automatically grabbed his vessel, and the blastdoors within the bay subsided and allowed the arm to bring the fighter into the flightdeck.
 As he was being landed by the loading arm, he saw that the other surviving ships in Gamma wing were also being loaded onto the flight deck, most importantly the Commodore saw that the flightdeck was almost empty other than several critically damaged fighters and bombers swarmed by technicians.

 What the hell is going on here? He thought to himself just before the entire Excalibur shook violently.

* * *

 The Commodore walked through the almost empty corridors of the destroyer, as he approached the lift that lead to the bridge, once again the Excalibur shook violently, he grasped the bulkhead he was near to keep balance, and once the blast subsided he entered the corridor.

 “Bridge,” he gruffly stated.

 The lift quickly rocketed through the decks of the vessel, however it only amplified the shock of the next blast, which hit at the moment the lift stopped at the bridge.

 He was nearly jettisoned from the lift but stepped forth unto the bridge, which was full of commotion and he could see through the clearplast windows swarms of fighters and chains of explosions, he knew the identity of the enemy the moment he saw one of the vessels fly past the bridge at a uncomfortably close distance.

 “Status?” Stashef sternly asked.

 “Hull is at 83 percent and dropping,” an officer quickly replied.

 Stashef swore under his breath but then spoke over the intercomm,” Vladmir, we need more power, we don’t have enough to power the main guns and defensive batteries at once!”

 “Captain,” the slightly celtic voice replied,” I’m giving her all the juice I can, I’ll try to bypass the fusion batteries, but that means that we’ll be sitting on a ticking time bomb, the antimatter reaction won’t be regulated…”

 Stashef tensely spoke nearly one syllable at a time,” I don’t care what it takes, I need full guns!”

 The Captain then turned to the Commodore and screamed,” What the hell are you doing on my bridge pilot?” 

 “Respectfully Captain, we better get the hell out of here to warn command…” the Commodore replied.

 “You defied direct orders…” Stashef began nearly screaming, only to be interrupted by another violent shake of the ship.

 “I know that, Captain…” the Commodore replied while his eyes narrowed.

 The Captain then took a deep breath and said while gritting his teeth,” Commodore… I’m sorry… but… we all have our duties…”

 The vessel shook again as he spoke,” Helm engage emergency retros, aim us directly at the corvette…”

 “Aye Captain,” the officer he spoke to replied, followed by a dull series of explosions throughout the ship’s hull, followed by slow hissing sounds in pulses and the slow drifting of the vessel.
 “Captain,” Colonel Morrison stated while starring through the clearplast window at the battle,” Our fighters are dropping like flies out there…”

 The Excalibur then drifted to face the corvette, which fired one of it’s beam cannons directly into the Excalibur’s bridge, however blast doors closed around the bridge’s fragile clearplast windows a matter of moments before the impact.

 “Sir,” another officer began,” I’m detecting another jump signature, hostile configuration.”

 “Damn,” Omega said,” That corvette in Gamma Draconis tracked our jump…”

 “This is going to end… now,” Stashef said as his eyes narrowed,” Vladmir, we better have enough power left in the batteries to charge the main gun…”

 “Captain, we don’t have enough power in the fusion batteries to synthesize a bottle of whiskey, let alone power the main gun…,” the chief engineer replied over the intercomm.

 “Then route power from the reactor directly to the main gun… and open fire,” Stashef coldly replied.

 “Captain, that is insanity, we could easily overload the flux cannon array or reactor!” the chief engineer screamed.

 “Fire the main gun,” Stashef slowly stated,” that is an order.”

 On all decks of the vessel the lights began to flicker, all defensive turrets began firing at erratic intervals, however most noticeable was the energy being culled and collected on the surface of the flux cannon array, attached to the top of the ship’s main hull. This energy increased swiftly, and began to reach a critical point, where small arcs of yellow energy darted from the array in a direct line, which was towards the hull of the Corvette.

 In a matter of moments after that, the flux cannon array erupted like a nova, a beam of pure energy emerged from the main gun array and smashed into the hull of the Corvette, utterly destroying it and creating superheated plasma debris.

 “It will take several minutes to recharge our main batteries and to restore function to all systems,” Vladmir replied over the intercomm, though his voice was faint and distorted due to the power loss.

 “Recall all fighters,” Stashef said to the Colonel, he then spoke over the intercomm again,” Vladmir I need photon beam cannons Beta and Delta brought online, reroute their power so it’s directly from the antimatter reactor, this battle must end here and now!”

 “We’re lucky as hell that your insane order to fire the main guns didn’t overload the reactor, but this is going too far, this ship won’t be able to handle this abuse much longer!” the chief engineer screamed.

 “What is our hull status?” Stashef asked only to be interrupted by the vessel’s shaking once more from beam cannon fire.

 “Hull integrity has dropped to below 70 percent, we are beginning to take structural damage,” an officer replied.

 “Weapons,” Stashef said while turning to one of the officers,” begin photon core insertion, bring cannons Beta and Delta online.”

 The Captain received a message over the intercomm,” I’ve reset the cannons to draw power directly from the reactor… but if you fire more than one shot, you risk an overload and this ship and all hands aboard will be playing harps…”

 “Noted,” Stashef coldly said,” Gunnery control, open fire!”

 The two beam cannons on the side of the Excalibur’s forward hull facing the surviving corvette hummed with energy as they charged and reached critical plasma tension, they then burst into green tinted streams of pure energy that sliced through the Corvette’s hull as the turrets themselves slowly rotated and repositioned themselves.

 The Corvette’s hull was quickly penetrated by the power of both beam cannons, and the vessel quickly collapsed upon itself in a ballet of fire and plasma.

CHAPTER FOUR

 Stashef paced is quarters while talking to a holo-recorder,” Captain’s log, supplemental… Clearly, the invading vessels are of Shivan configuration, but how any Shivan vessel has gotten this close to Terran space remains unknown. Sensor sweeps of Gamma Draconis detect nothing, and it appears that from subspace jump traces, both Shivans vessels originated from the Ross 128 system, all data on the battle, configuration of the vessels… hell even the existence of Shivans in GTVA space is all…. classified level Zeta…”

 Stashef sat down in his bed and took a deep breath,” Admiral Weathers is coming aboard the Excalibur, to investigate the ‘rogue GTVI operative, Vice Admiral Japak’ as well as to probably delete all data of this engagement from the ship’s logs… To add insult to injury I’ve also received a comm from Delta Serpentis, to jump to Polaris pronto, it almost seems like Michelle wants her assignment done before the next meeting of the senate and general assembly…”

 The Captain then grabbed a glass of water that was on a desk near his bed, he took a sip of the cold liquid and then hoarsely said,” Compiler, end recording.”