Flowers in the Black - Prologue
22 Jun 2018Jellicoe
The vast bulk of the Majestic class Interdictor hung awkwardly in the void, drifting and slowly spinning, her great engines dark and silent, her attitude thrusters also clearly offline. Gouts of flame from rents in her hull were visible even at quite a distance as were slashes of luminescent corrosion that disfigured the pristine white of the once mighty ships hull, most sinister of all though was the green tinged haze that engulfed the dead ship, almost as though space itself had been infused by something strange, alien and malevolent, and that humanity was no longer welcome.A blood red Fer de Lance nosed its way slowly through the all engulfing fog towards the wreck, the sleek, predatory lines of its hull giving way to the softer, more elegant curves of her Saud Kruger cockpit in which sat two women. In the pilots chair was a deeply tanned blonde woman in a plain red flight suit, she was still a young woman but wore a confident look in her eyes and the shoulder flashes of an Elite ranked combateer. Her companion was older, on what in ages gone by would have been considered the cusp of old age but was now barely into her middle years, she had pale but flawless skin, classically high cheekbones and the kind of wide, fluid, expressive eyes that inspired any number of lovelorn attempts at poetry.
"Have you ever seen anything like that before?" The older woman asked keeping her voice calm and level, retaining all its usual self assurance and authority.
"Once." The pilot replied, "then it was two Farragut's but the damage pattern was the same, and there's no human weapon that can do that."
"The rumours are true then?" the older woman mused, "They have returned."
"Contact on the scanner," the younger woman broke in urgently, "it's..." she gasped, "it's unknown, the computer can't recognise it. It looks like one of 'them'."
"Move us away then sweetie, if it can do that to an Interdictor we're probably outmatched." She paused to give her companion a smile, "however good our pilot is." The Fer de Lance flipped and booted away from the wreck.
"This is really strange," the pilot said curiously, "it's ignoring us, staying close to the Interdictor."
"Show me." The older woman ordered and their ship flipped again to show the hulk of the capital ship three kilometres distant , smaller than the giant wreck, but far more unsettling was a strange shape moving through the haze, organic and menacing, a small central structure with eight sail or petal like protrusions each glowing with a luminescent yellow like a great skeletal flower. The strange vessel halted and a tendril of yellow light snaked out from its centre to a small pod close to the Interdictor which began to move toward the alien craft.
"It's scooping escape pods" The pilot said horrified, pushing the throttle forwards, "We have to stop them."
"Stop!" The older woman ordered. "That thing just destroyed a capitol ship so unless you can at least match that we don't stand a chance."
"But Ma'am that could be us in those pods." The pilot replied her hand hovering uncertainly over the throttle.
"Getting ourselves killed won't help anybody," The older woman answered calmly and authoritatively, "We can't stand up to that kind of firepower, we need a more powerful ship, and we both know who has one of those." She added with a smile.