FREESPACE 2
MASQUERADE
SEASON THREE
EPISODE TWO

CHAPTER ONE

 Admiral Barrett was within a dark room with only a single light overhead, he was seated upon a stool in the center of it, and the room was perfectly square with the door in front of him clearly being an exit, but locked.

 Pacing around the Admiral was Commodore James Smith.

 “You are going to tell… the truth… to me Admiral, now let’s go back to the beginning, shall we?” the Commodore stated sternly.

 The Admiral was breathing rapidly, and gritted his teeth when he replied,” I told you for the hundreth time! An alliance with the destroyers is the only way for humanity to survive!”

“Why?” the Commodore whispered.

 “You have not seen what she showed me… thousands of races, billions of lives, the balance, billions of vessels swarming this galaxy and others, consuming it all in flame!” Barrett screamed.

“WHY!” the Commodore screamed in the Admiral’s ear.

 “Bosch knows… the GTI knew despite the cynicism of Taulus, Dryer, and their ambitions… I know!” Barrett responded.

 “Then why destroy Bosch and the NTF if they’re such good buddies ‘o pals?” the Commodore sarcastically replied.

 “The Vasudans stand in the way of our true fate! Not even Bosch knows the threat that they pose to our future… You know who the victims would be if a war was on the NTF front, don’t you? You know why Bosch chose those systems he did to expand his Neo-Terran Front? Of course you don’t, Commodore…” Barrett replied.

 All of the sudden the Commodore was interrupted by the intercomm system which he heard Stashef’s voice over it,” Commodore Smith, report to the bridge immediately.”

 “What fate do you choose?” the Admiral screamed,” A dying alliance? Or a new future for humanity!”

 The Commodore ignored the raving Admiral as he stepped out of the cell, blinding light flooded the dark room, but it faded away as the doors closed behind the Commodore.

* * *

 Captain Stashef starred out of the Excalibur’s bridge, directly into the massive hull of the GTVA Colossus.

 “Sir,” an officer began,” There is an incoming transmission from the Colossus, audio only.”

 Stashef paused for a moment before replying,” Patch it through.”

 He then turned to face the holographic starchart in the center of the bridge, which quickly dissolved into the GTVA logo. As soon as the logo was apparent, a voice boomed through the intercomm system in the bridge, it was Taluet’s voice,” Captain Stashef, I did not expect you in this system.”

 “What the hell are you doing on the Colossus, Lieutenant Commander?” Stashef replied.

 “The true question is, where have you taken Admiral Barrett and Senator Talvart, Captain,” Taluet replied over the intercomm.

* * *

 Within the bridge of the Colossus, a large holographic display panel was infront of Hale Taluet, within this display was a GTVA emblem slowly rotating.

 The Lieutenant Commander then turned to one of the Colossus’ bridge officers, and he then quietly said,” Charge all beam cannons, target all weapons on the Excalibur.”

 “But sir,” the officer he spoke to whispered,” Only one beam cannon is operational and our laser turrets will be completely ineffective against that warship’s hull.”

 “You have your orders,” Taluet replied harshly as he then turned to face the holographic image again.

* * *

 On the Excalibur’s bridge, an officer quickly turned to Captain Stashef and then spoke,” Sir, the Colossus is powering up it’s weapons grid.”

 Stashef then turned to face the projection and sternly stated,” Don’t be a fool Taluet, your masquerade is over, power down the Colossus immediately or we will open fire.”

 The Captain then turned to the chief weapons officer on the bridge,” Gunnery control, charge photon beam cannons, commence plasma core insertion.”

* * *

 Commodore James Smith reached one of the many lifts on the deck in which Admiral Barrett was being held, he stepped within the lift and it’s doors slowly slid closed after he said, “Compiler, bridge.” 

 All of the sudden he heard a screeching sound, and the metallic alloys of the lift’s roof then swiftly crushed inward, and a pattern of crushed pieces of the lift’s roof formed and made it’s way into the main corridor.

 An emergency lift shutdown kept the doors of the lift from closing fully, and then in a matter of moments, the deck outside of the lift’s roofing collapsed and shrapnel exploded and ricocheted through the corridor, followed by a loud shriek. The commodore ducked momentarily to avoid the shrapnel entering the lift, but then quickly turned to face the beast that crashed through the roofing, pulling out an SD-4 Sidearm which had an extra construct added onto it from a pocket within a shirt he wore under his GTVA uniform.

 The demon which entered the now ruined corridor turned to face the commodore, and what could be called it’s face glared menacingly at him.

 Commodore Smith quickly recognized the visage before him, it was a Shivan, he raised his sidearm to face the Shivan and then quickly pulled it’s trigger.

 A green bolt of energy flew from the sidearm with each press of the trigger, each pulse waned through the air and impacted upon the Shivan, which quickly and violently shifted itself around and tore open the side of the deck, boaring it’s way through the deckplates and then the commodore could hear muffeled screams followed by silence, utter silence.

 Omega quickly walked through the debris of the ruined corridor, and glanced into the tunnel that the Shivan boared through the deckplates, a tunnel continued out of sight. The commodore then quickly made his way to one of the intercomm panels that still seemed to function in the corridor, and hastily opened a channel to the bridge,” This is commodore James Smith, our friend has returned, deck three, section 2e.” 

CHAPTER TWO

 Captain Stashef paced the bridge swiftly, the Excalibur and Colossus both sat drifting in space with each and every gunport aboard facing the other vessel, and a Shivan lurked within his ship despite the entire security force aboard hunting the creature down.

 Stashef then stopped, and Paula Morrison who stepped into the bridge then looked at his face.

 “Kernigham…” the Captain mumbled.

 “Kernigham?” the Colonel replied.

 “Yes, Kernigham,” Stashef responded,” In 2333, the GTI Kernigham was slaughtered by a single Shivan, it’s taken decades to fully discover what happened back then… the GTI was absolute in it’s coverup and removal of evidence… I can only pray that such a thing does not happen to us…”

 Paula was silent and turned towards the stars, looking directly opposite to the Colossus’ position.

 “What is wrong?” the Captain asked.

 “I…,” Paula said slowly while not facing the Captain,” Susan Morrison, my mother was killed by… that very same GTI… She gave her life to save mine… when I was only three…”

 “Paula,” Stashef replied,” Barrett is in custody, Taluet is bound to screw himself over… and… just look, the GTI rebellion is more than over…”

 She then turned to face the Captain,” It won’t be over… not until the Shivans are finally defeated… not until greed is defeated… it will never end…”

 “Perhaps not,” the Captain replied,” But we can do our best…”

 The Captain was then quickly interrupted by Commodore Smith walking onto the bridge.

 “Damn illegally modified SD-4 sidearms, the EM power couplings just have to overload in my hand every damn time,” the commodore mumbled while holding one of his hands that grasped the sidearm to his side with another.

 Stashef quickly turned to face the commodore and grabbed the sidearm out from his hand which had the weapon, the Captain then held the weapon steadily infront of him, examining it.

 “Interesting,” Stashef replied,” Using a Banshee EM coupling? Those were banned after it was discovered that the EM levels are harmful to Vasudans after prolonged exposure.”

 “Well it works,” the commodore replied after rolling his eyes from Stashef’s remark, and snatching the sidearm out of his hands.
 “Captain,” one of the officers on the bridge stated,” The Colossus is hailing us again.”

 “Patch it through,” the Captain sneered, turning to face the holographic projector.

 “Captain Stashef,” a voice spoke over the intercomm, which clearly wasn’t Taluet’s,” This is Admiral Ferrington, commander of the GTVA Colossus.”

 “Admiral Ferrington, this is Stashef,” the Captain replied.

 “Lieutenant Commander Hale Taluet is in custody, his orders from the senate were falsified, I managed to break the communications locks that Barrett placed with a little help from our communications officer and established contact with the senate, thank god that command is on our side,” Ferrington replied.

 “Our side?” the Captain replied confused.

 “Yes,” Ferrington stated,” I know you have Barrett and Talvart under custody, after speaking to the senate it turns out that Talvart’s vote for the Excalibur to commence an attack on Polaris is false, actually the true vote was to assist with the Pegasi plague which you did.”

 “But that plague did not breakout until shortly after we arrived,” Stashef replied.

 “They only said that to you make sure that you seemed legitimate to the senate at first, if they weren’t suspicious of Barrett already for the Aldeberran debacle three months ago you might have made the jump to Polaris, completed the mission, and return as a rogue…” Ferrington said.

 “Damn it!” Paula replied,” That’s what was meant in those logs about the need to eliminate the Excalibur as a threat, if we did manage to survive the blunt of the NTF fleet the GTVA would be hunting us all down… and then that witch hunt could have bought Talvart more time to get the Colossus’ blueprints, the second threat that she saw…”

 “The best laid plans…” Stashef said under his breath,” gone to waste…”

 “Captain,” Admiral Ferrington began,” You should transmit any data on this over to the Colossus. Frankly, this conspiracy might have been foiled, but there is still a chance for a Shivan invasion through that node, our ship only has a handful of weapons working and wouldn’t stand a chance surviving that jump.”

 “Admiral Ferrington,” Stashef replied,” I have other reasons for going beyond that node… We’ll transmit that data over to you.”

 “Thank you Captain,” the Admiral replied,” As soon as the transfer is complete, we will make the jump to Capella and transmit the evidence to the senate.”

 The communications channel then swiftly closed, and the GTVA logo within the holographic display then dissolved once again into a vast rotating starchart.

 “There is a Shivan somewhere on this ship, and before we make the jump, I intend to find it,” Stashef said as he then walked out of the bridge, followed by Colonel Morrison and Commodore Smith.

CHAPTER THREE

 Captain Stashef swiftly walked through the decks on the Excalibur, in his hands were a SD-4 sidearm and a hand held intercomm node.

 “Captain,” a voice chirped over the comm node, which was clearly Paula Morrison’s,” I’m on deck ten, nothing to report… it’s pretty quiet… wait…” her voice was quickly muffled by static which soon grew so loud that it pierced Stashef’s ears with it’s screech.

 He then quickly changed the channel to that of the nearby security guards and hastily said as he then began swiftly trotting towards a lift,” The intruder is on deck ten, repeat deck ten.”

* * *

 Stashef ran with all of his strength, passing through crowds of people evacuating the deck in which the intruder, which Stashef already knew was the Shivan, was on.

 Behind the Captain were several security contingents, and it’s members were panting from lack of breath from the frantic run.

 Stashef paused for a moment and then hit the intercomm node he was holding and began to speak while panting," Where did it go?”

 “Sir,” a voice replied though the intercomm node, but it was distorted slightly from interference which even the Captain didn’t know the source of,” It’s managed to make it’s way through the lift system, we have heavy casualties on decks 9 and 6 because of it’s switching from lift to lift, it’s headed towards the bridge it seems.”

 “On my way,” Stashef replied while beginning to run once more.

* * *

  Paula Morrison was aboard the Excalibur’s bridge, she paced back and forth waiting for more casualty reports. 

 Damn, she thought to herself, What in heaven or hell could do this? Only a single Shivan has this much power? Maybe the Vasudan prophet Ma’tang Cho’rono was correct, when the destroyers returned there wouldn’t be much hope… But there is still hope…

 All of the sudden an unearthly scream echoed in the corridor just outside of the bridge, “It’s here!” one of the guards aboard the bridge screamed, pulling out his sidearm and rushing through the door.

 All that the Colonel saw was his turning about and hearing fire from the sidearms, only to see his body thrown across the corridor like a doll, and then she saw the bulkheads near the door to the bridge burst open, and so entered the Shivan.

* * *

 Captain Stashef heard the muffled screams over his intercomm node, but now all was silent over the communications band. The Shivan in it’s passage destroyed the lift system, but there was still a way to use it to reach the bridge quickly.

 The lift that Stashef and the contingent were heading towards’ doors were sealed shut and it was even only half height level with the open enterance door on the deck, since the lift’s power and systems were cut just before it came to a halt from it’s journey from the bridge several decks above. However, one of the security guards placed a small device upon the door, the Captain and security contingents then backed off, stepping back from the door that then began to warp in shape in the form of ripples emanating from the device.

 The door then shattered into a thousands pieces, and out burst several crew members who were trapped in the lift, each one crawling through the porthole where a door once was and hopping down unto the deck.

 “Couldn’t we have just used the damn manual override device?” one of the security officers mumbled.

 “We don’t have the time…” another replied, watching the Captain crawl into the lift and then busting open a panel on it’s ceiling.

 Stashef then thrusted himself from the floor with a firm hold on the porthole opened on the lift’s roof, he then dragged himself through the porthole and then slowly stood up on the lift’s roof, peering through the seemingly endless dark tunnel above him.

 On the surface of the tunnel, there was a ladder upon the surfaced of an indented section so that it wouldn’t interfere with the lift’s path. The Captain quickly gained a foothold on the first railing and began working up, he peered back for a moment noticing that the guards were beginning to make their way through the lift’s emergency door and onto it’s roof.

 I don’t have the time to wait for them… the Captain though to himself, continuing onward.

CHAPTER FOUR

 Captain Stashef reached a point of the ladder where it veered off to the side, veering to clear a path to a door, which was obliterated and torn open, he quickly hopped through the ruined door and found himself directly opposite of the bridge’s enterance door.

 He quickly glanced around, and saw torn and tattered bodies as well as noticed the deck was nearly torn apart and put back together once more, he then turned to notice a gaping hole to the side of the bridge door, and he stepped through it.

 Stashef then saw a beast gliding through the air, falling to the ground, and taking one of it’s powerful arms mounted on it’s back, and tearing a control console from it’s mount.

 Several security guards fired their sidearms, running in circles around the Shivan as their weapons futilely were deflected from it’s carapace.

 Then the Shivan came to a halt, facing directly at a security guard, who then out of fear dropped his sidearm and slowly began walking backwards, soon hitting one of the bridge’s side bulkheads.

 The beast’s shoulder appeared to unfurl like the pedals of a flower, and an eerie white glow emanated from it’s insides, swiftly getting brighter until a lance of pure energy was unleashed and what was once a security guard vanished in the stream of blinding light.

 The hull behind where the man was glowing dimly, arcs of energy danced between the glows, all of which faded in a matter of moments.

 The Shivan then turned about, it’s shoulder slowly closing as it moved, and it then faced directly at the Captain.

 In the corner of his eye, Stashef then saw Paula Morrison’s body on the ground, covered in blood, but her chest rose in fell. She’s still alive, probably scared as hell, but still alive… Just keep in once piece damn you… it hasn’t killed me yet… so… why hasn’t it killed me yet?…

 All of the sudden a loud shriek came from the direction of the Shivan, it leaped directly over Stashef’s head and in a lightening flash turned about behind the Captain and one of it’s arms in which a glowing device similar to a blade emerged upon it sliced by his head.

 The Captain only managed to survive by ducking to avoid the beast’s jump, which little did he know was much higher then his head height even if he was standing up.

 Stashef quickly turned about, bringing his sidearm directly into the face, if it could be called one, of the Shivan and fired it at point blank range.

 The beast shrieked and violently brought both of it’s arms to cover it’s face, the Captain quickly ran behind the violently convulsing beast and leaped onto it’s back, barely hanging onto the space between it’s head and thorax carapace pieces, and with his other hand he attempted to fit his sidearm into that narrow piece of what appeared to be bare flesh or perhaps muscle tissue.

 However the creature swiftly flung one of it’s arms over it’s back, and it’s blade of pure energy narrowly missed the Captain as he attempted to dodge it, still barely keeping hold on the beast.

 He then brought the sidearm up to the armor plate as his hand began to give way and pulled the trigger at the moment his grip gave way.

 The burst of energy from the small sidearm flew perfectly into the space between the armor plates, and it impacted with a stunning effect. The very beast gave a deafening scream, as it violently twitched in agony and fell to the ground.

 You deserved it, bastard Stashef spat in his mind at the now clearly dead beast before him.

* * *

 The Captain rubbed his sore body, repair crews flooded the bridge and the deceased Shivan was dragged into the medlab.

 Paula Morrison walked up behind the Captain, her face covered with various bandages for cuts and burns,” Glad to see you lived…” she said with a slight smile.

 Stashef chuckled,” Well our little friend didn’t fortunately…”

 The Colonel then spoke again,” Well I know that we should have called for help from the Colossus’ security when we had the chance…”

 “Her security would have been a hazard, they don’t know the layout of this ship and frankly who would have known what that thing was trying to do?” Stashef replied.

 “It was trying to kill all of us, the bridge was the most weak area aboard the ship security wise and if it shut down the lifts it would be able to kill the guards almost one by one, then work on everyone else as it wished,” she responded.

 “It would have been better if that damn thing just made it’s way to the reactor and blew us all to kingdom come,” the Captain said with a sigh.
 “We still have to find the real Talvart, who’s probably still alive, somewhere beyond that node,” Stashef said.

 “Well with a little more decrypting of those comm logs,” the Colonel began,” I’m sure that we’ll be able to find where she is… and I’m sure that R&D is going to love that gizmo when they get their hands on it…”

 The Captain’s face had a small grin upon it as he spoke,” Well I’m pretty sure that in no time they’ll be making us talk in Shivan…”