Episode XXI:
Extinguisher
 

 Kate pushed herself down the long corridor, the halls were empty, devoid of life. Kate gripped her rifle hard. She pushed herself into a wall, and peered around a corner. There was nothing. A single door was left slightly open, as if beckoning her to enter. Kate moved forward, wondering what to do. Should she enter? Perhaps move on? She had to check she had no choice. She moved in slowly, quietly. She gripped her sword strongly as she moved. She creeped up to the door and looked in. The room was filled with three cells, the bars of cold Iron. One face appeared out of the darkness, it was Extinguisher. Kate pushed opened the door and rushed in.
 “Kate?” Extinguisher asked slowly, trying to see if she would answer. Kate moved a finger to her lips, she searched the room slowly, eventually she stepped forward and crouched next to the cell. Extinguisher joined her.
 “I’m here to rescue you.” Kate whispered. Extinguisher smiled.
 “I only need out of this cell, then I will kill that… thing.” Kate nodded slowly. She looked at the lock, it was going to be hard to crack open, but Kate could do it, it would only take time. She placed her sword on the ground, and pulled out a small role of felt. She unrolled the cloth and pulled out several lock picks. She found the card slot on the lock and began to stick metal picks into the slot. A few sparks flew, here and there, but nothing to worry about. Extinguisher smiled and pushed his back up against the wall. He began to laugh slowly; Kate gave him a brief glance.
 “What’s so funny?” She asked slowly. Extinguisher shook a hand in front of his face.
 “It’s nothing.” He said. Kate shook her head.
 “No what?” Extinguisher smiled and gave in.
 “Just remembering the time we came to save Sam.” He smiled slowly, thinking about the adventure. It had been an interesting day, back during the first Great War. “There I am sitting in a seat in the Bar, enjoying a nice Denebian Tea when in storms Stonefox. He angrily tossed down his gloves on the table. If course, I look up at him and ask; ‘Something wrong?’ he gives this long sigh, and sits down into a chair next to me. He shakes his head and says;
 ‘It’s just this whole thing, they’ve sent Sam to the Olympus and I know it’s a trap.’ Well I set down my tea and look at my commander and I ask.
 ‘So what are you going to do about it?’ Stonefox searches the room, then, out of nowhere, Ironhorse, Wingnut, and Red-Hawk, appear and sit down at the table. Ironhorse smiles and asks;
 ‘Yes, what are we going to do?’ in that half-French accent he has. Eventually Knight stumbles into the bar and finds us. He slowly walks over and sits down with us. Stonefox shakes his head and says:
 ‘Never be late for a secret meeting.’ Stonefox says. Then I perk up and say:
 ‘It’s his first mutiny cut him some slack.’ Knight is obviously perplexed by this. And Wingnut breaks out laughing.”
 Kate smiled at that, she kept working.
 “So there we are, Stonefox looking the great commander, Ironhorse trying to decide what to do next, and Red-fox sitting with his hand over Wingnut’s mouth. Those were the days. Eventually Red-Hawk lets Wingnut go, and Stonefox finally tells us what’s going on.
 ‘Sam and Vo’tion have been sent to the Olympus, but it’s a trap.’ Stonefox says, trying to sound more important then he actually was. But we didn’t mind if Admiral Stonefox flaunted himself once and a while.
 ‘A trap?’ Knight asks, obviously not following the conversation.
 ‘Yes, a trap. And we’re going to spring them.’ Red-foxed smiles, we all knew that there was nothing he liked better then a good battle.
 ‘When do we go?’ Red-fox asks, and at that moment we get called out on patrol with David, and Stonefox smiles.
 ‘Right now.’ He says quickly, we all stood, and the rest is history. Or was history” Extinguisher’s face was sad, the GTI had hidden most of that history, his history, everyone’s history. Kate smiled slowly.
 “Nice story.” Extinguisher began to laugh. Kate winced.
 “Yes, very nice.” Richtoven appeared in the doorway, everything moved too quickly, Extinguisher stood. Richtoven’s gun came up, he pulled the trigger. Time slowed down, a near dead stop. Kate saw the bullet approach, Extinguisher’s eyes went wide as the bullet bit into his flesh, blood splattered on the walls as the pullet pierced his lung, and emerged on the opposite side. Richtoven laughed, and ran away. Kate pulled the cell door open, Extinguisher crashed into the ground, and lay half dead on the floor. Kate rushed in, she lifted his head. Extinguisher coughed blood unto the floor. He laughed slowly.
 “Kate?” He asked quietly. Kate cradled the dying man’s head.
 “I’m here.” She said quietly.
 “Don’t let it end this way, find Richtoven.” Extinguisher’s eyes went limp, he stared up into the ceiling. “Stonefox?” He asked slowly, and with that Extinguisher’s head went limp in Kate’s hands, he was dead. Kate was filled with fury. She laid Extinguisher’s head on the ground and stood. She drew her sword.
 “No more Richtoven, you will die!” She yelled. Her voice echoing through the halls of the base. Kate walked out of the jail. And she ran off down the long hallway.

     * * *

 In orbit around Vasuda key, Emperor Konshu the 2nd sat in a large chair on the bridge of his command ship. He looked over to one of his officers.
 “Fleet Status.” He asked bluntly. The Vasudan officer checked each ship, every fighter, on his console, and then looked up.
 “All vessels report ready.” The officer said quickly. Konshu smiled to himself, his fleet was ready, and now it was time to move out, Richtoven had moved his fleet away from Luyten, expecting the Vasudan fleet to leave Vasuda Key in order to aid in the destruction of that system. And while the Vasudan fleet was engaged below, Richtoven’s forces would obliterate Vasuda Key. It was truly brilliant. Too bad Konshu had guessed all that before hand.
 “Give me the location of the enemy fleet.” Another officer checked her panel, taking readings form satellites. Then something changed, and a beacon went off-line.
 “Beacon in Alpha Centaury just went off line sir.” Konshu smiled.
 “Set course. And engage.” Konshu said. The fleet turned, and engaged their engines, they flood into subspace, and headed for they’re pray. A few hours later, they reached Alpha Centaury, Konshu stood from his chair.
 “Awaks, begin emitting subspace interference.” The awak fleet floated out and began to spin their large dishes, the subspace drives of everything in the system fell off-line. The enemy was caught off guard, they were too spread out. “Launch all fighters, back them up with bomber wings.” Konshu turned and sat down in his large seat. The bombers took out a cruiser before it had time to ready weapon systems. The blue shockwaves spread out unto the darkness of space, filled its endless void with blue color.
 “Sir, they’re launching fighters.” Konshu nodded slowly.
 “Bring us around the lead ships forward flank, and charge main weapons.” The massive destroyer moved through space, fighters danced along the hull, fighting each other, and then spreading off into space. The flak cannons on the destroyer opened up, blasting away at any enemy fighter craft that entered range. Konshu’s vessel, Vasudan One came into range of the enemy destroyer, but the Hecate was ready. It unleashed a flurry of beam fire into the unsuspecting Vasudan craft. The bridge rocked with the blast. Konshu raised a hand. “Fire.” The main weapons of the Vasuda One unleashed an orange fury on the craft, nicking its main reactor. The ship lost power for a moment, but that was all that Konshu needed. “Take us along side.” The Vasudan One kept moving. “Side cannons, Fire.” The beam ripped across the enemy ship's hull, pulling it apart. Fiery decks burst into flames as they were exposed to the void of space. The enemy cruiser returned fire from its side guns, its generators back online. There was an explosion on the bridge. Wires fell from the ceiling as panels pulled apart from the strain of broken electrical wires. “Damage.” Konshu yelled.
 “Damage to the Port Flak Turrets, hull down to seventy percent.” Konshu nodded.
 “How are they doing?” Konshu asked.
 “Hull at fifty percent, forward beam array destroyed, minimal damage to turrets.” Konshu nodded.
 “All engines, full reverse. Charge main weapons array.” The destroyer stopped in mid space, and began to move forward. The Hecate unleashed another blast into the Vasuda one; it glanced off the hull of the moving ship, the beam cut along the ship, but the moving ship dodged the last few seconds. The beam ripped across space, a Terran fighter was caught in the beam and exploded. The Vasuda One pulled forward, they were in front of the Hecate. “Fire.” Konshu yelled, the beam spread out from the Vasudan Destroyer, it struck the craft and a massive explosion came from the ship, debrey filled space, and sparking decks were exposed to the darkness of space. AN officer suddenly looked up from his console.
 “Sir, reading a wing of enemy bombers, heading in.” Konshu stood and rushed over to a console, the officer moved aside while Konshu looked over the wings.
 “Cancer, intercept those bombers.” Cancer was the closest but Konshu knew that he would never make it. “Charge rear Arc’s.” The Hecate had ducked down low, below the Vasuda one, and it fired a beam into the belly of the mighty vessel. Systems dropped as the reactors took a hit. An officer yelled out.
 “We’ve lost main power, I can’t charge the rear arrays.” Konshu looked at the large screen in front of him. He saw the fighter approaching. “For Vasuda.” Konshu said. The bombers came closer, closer, they entered firing rang, Konshu gasped.

    * * *

“What do you mean they won’t let us through?” Richard Dravus of the GTD Danton yelled at the young officer. Dravus sat in his quarters, looking over his battle groups. A slow beeping noise pulled Dravus’ eyes down to the console. He hit a few keys and a screen rose from the desk. A young woman appeared on the screen.
“Sir. Admiral Kosak on the comm. for you sir.” Dravus nodded.
“Put him through.” The face of Dimitry Kosak appeared on the screen. “Dimitry, what is it?” Dravus asked. Dimitry was on his bridge, he was uneasy in his Admiral’s uniform, and fixed his collar often.
“Have you herd?” Dravus nodded. “They’ve blockaded the system. This is madness. How dare they?!” Dravus nodded slowly, he didn’t know how GTVA officers could turn on their own, this wasn’t built to support peace, but the GTVA just didn’t want the rebels to grow in size, they figured if they let Richtoven have one system the cancer would be contained, but cancer always grew.
“Have you talk to the Dunsinay and the Burnamwood?” Dravus asked. Dimitry nodded.
“They are with us, if you want to run the blockade we are all with you. GTD Aristogoth out.” The screen went dark. The face of a lieutenant appeared on the screen.
“Sir, reports are coming in of a pitched battle between Vasudan Forces and forces loyal to Richtoven. Reports are sketchy, but reports indicate that Konshu’s destroyer, Vasuda One, may have been destroyed. Do we reinforce them?” Dimitry shook his head.
“We must aid the Requiem in Luyten.” The officer saluted, and the screen slowly retracted into the desk. The large screen that served as a window began to flicker. Dravus frowned, and then ordered the lieutenant out. The screen continued to spark and flicker. Space was ripped apart by static, and then the static cleared.
“Derek, I am glad I taught you something. Perhaps not enough though.” The face of a young Admiral came on the screen. A secret form of communication, tight beam a signal to a destroyer and you can use any terminal on the ship to show covert messages, a design flaw, but a useful one.
“You taught me enough Richard.” Derek said quickly.
“Why are you doing this?” Dravus asked slowly.
“The better question is why are you doing this?” Dravus leaned forward in his seat.
“Because, the worst thing I can do is give in to hatred.” Derek shook his head.
“No, I mean sitting around doing nothing.” Dravus furrowed his brow. Derek smiled.
“I would never give in to Hatred. Some of us in the blockade are with you. In twelve hours my ship will suffer a power loss and will begin to list. In another five hours, we will be so far out of range, that a ship will move into position to take our place, leaving a large hole for you to enter the node.” Derek said, looking over his shoulder every few minutes, watching, making sure no one was watching.
“What about the other craft, won’t they open fire?” Derek shook his head.
“They may be loyal to the GTVA, but they will not fire on another GTVA craft.” Derek said quickly. His hand appeared over a panel. “And in seventeen hours we will agree that this conversation never took place.” Dravus smiled.
“Thank you.” Derek nodded, and the screen went back to space. Dravus turned in his chair. He opened up a comm. channel to the bridge.
“Contact the fleet, we move in seventeen hours.” A bit on the late side, but he prayed that it was enough time.

     * * *

     The bombers approached the Vasuda one, their weapons armed. They entered weapons range. “For Vasuda.” Konshu yelled. The bombers came closer, they prepared to fire. Their bombs lashed out, their blue tails light up the space around the Vasudan one. In a few seconds everything would –
 The bombs passed under the Vasuda one. The bombs kept moving, they struck the Hecate, the ship cried out in pain as the warheads crashed into its hull. The Hecate exploded slowly, fire ripped through every deck, systems crashed, and the hull ripped itself apart. The shockwave reached out into space, and shook the Vasuda one, sending the crew tumbling across the decks. Konshu lost his footing and fell to the floor. Power came back. Konshu pulled himself up.
 “Move us out of the debrey field, fast!” The engines of the Vasuda one caught fire again, and pulled itself out of the way of several large pieces of debrey. “Report.” One of the officers shook his head. “Find me those bombers, find out why they missed.” The officer shook his head.
 “I don’t have them on the scope.” Konshu furrowed his brow.
 “What?” He asked slowly. “They were destroyed then?” The officer shook his head.
 “No debrey. They could not have been vaporised.” Konshu stepped forward, “Ki’shando.” The officer said slowly. Konshu stopped dead.
 “Ki’shando?” A younger officer asked slowly. Konshu nodded.
 “An old tale, Ghost ships.” Konshu said slowly. “Some say they are long dead warriors, allowed to return to Space to bring justice to their murders.” The officer nodded slowly. Konshu turned. “Bring up a shot of the fighters.” The bombers came up on the screen. “Enlarge and inhance.” One of the fighters became very large; the screen slowly changed the image so that it could be seen more clearly. “There on the wing.” Konshu said slowly.
 “Something in Terran, I cannot make it out.” Konshu stepped up to the screen.
 “I know that symbol. It is a very old symbol, thirty one years old to be exact.” Konshu said slowly. The officers were puzzled. “The greatest Terran squadron that has ever existed. The Black Sparrows, murdered by the NTF.”  Konshu said slowly. Extinguisher must be dead, because only together could they return, and they used their vengeance to save him, someone they trusted greatly must be on a mission to avenge them. And perhaps then, the Black Sparrows can rest.

     * * *

 David sat in his chair, looking over several attack plans. An officer walked into his personal quarters. David set the plans aside and looked up at the incoming officer. She stood in front of the Admiral.
 “Any word?” David asked slowly. The officer nodded slowly.
 “Captain Vo’rant just called in. He found the Doctor…” The officer trailed off.
 “Well, tell me!” David said slowly, the officer jumped back in surprise, she cleared her throat and put on her hardest face.
 “The Doctor is dead.” David balled his hand into a fist and slammed it down into his desk; he broke the covering and his fist smashed down into the electronics. Sparks flew. David removed his hand and flexed it a moment. Extinguisher had been his friend, it had been him and the Black Sparrows that had gone to save Sam that time, extinguisher had helped them re-take the Olympus, and now he was gone, he was with Stonefox and the others now, out there somewhere. He fell back into his chair, he looked over at the large screen that displayed space, he watched the stars glitter, then he nodded slowly.
 “There is no more time.” He said slowly. “Make preparations to assault the NTF base.” The officer stepped forward.
 “Sir?” She asked quickly.
 “You herd the order!” David shot back. The officer saluted and walked out of the room. It was time to end this. And out space the Requiem floated silently, moving quietly through space, she would go now, to her death, or to new glory it didn’t matter anymore. The fight had begun, and it would never end. David knew that, Kate knew that, but in the end, they would all have to make a sacrifice, and David’s was just about up.

     To Be Continued…
 
 

Leader for the Shivans 3: Journey from Dunwitch Hill
Will continue next season!