Empyria's Heart
17 Dec 2022GM-Faux
Empyria's HeartCMDR GM-Faux
Chinas Sector, Schade Settlement. Commander Excaliber grips her flight controls tightly as she breathes heavily. A female computer voice echoes in the cockpit “Caustic Substance Detected!” Excaliber increases her throttle as she begins a high-g orbit around her target… A massive alien vessel, a Thargoid Interceptor. Her thrusters burn brightly as she pushes her Alliance Chieftain as hard as it's able to. Excaliber’s hand squeezes the trigger on the right-hand joystick that was her directional control. A bright flash of red fills her vision as the force of her weapons firing kicks her back.
Sparks shoot out of her central console as the weapons cool down. Excaliber could feel the heat inside the cockpit increasing. Another shot. Excaliber’s breathing gets more labored as the heat increases “Warning, Heat Levels Critical!” The female computer voice stated.
Excaliber could feel droplets of sweat rolling down her face under her helmet. Her ship’s thrusters began to cut in and out. She pressed a button on her controls and a hiss followed.
“Coolant Purge Initiated.”
“Heat Sink Deployed.”
The heatsink, while doing nothing for Excaliber’s temperature, did cool down her ship quite a bit.
Excaliber pushes her throttle up as she lays into the Thargoid vessel. Several guttural growls vibrate her ship as parts of the Thargoid vessel detach against Excaliber’s weapons.
“Just die already!” Excaliber grits her teeth as the heat has become unbearable. The Thargoid does a 180 flipping around and returning fire onto Excaliber’s ship. As the bolts hit her ship they send shockwaves that shock her to her core. Suddenly the sound of glass fills her ears. The sound of air hissing begins. Another bolt hits directly on the canopy. “Canopy Integrity Compromised.”
Excaliber yelps as the glass shatters, all the air in the cockpit suddenly vents, the roar and the pressure change fill her ears with a ringing. Quickly she refocuses, the Thargoid was injured, she just needed to finish it off. The sudden temperature change from burning hot to freezing cold was taking a toll on Excaliber, her adrenaline was pumping and she was shaking. Another volley erupts from Excaliber’s ship. The sound of the cannons firing was painfully loud. The blast tore through the Thargoid’s green hull leaving a smouldering hole where its ‘Eye’ was.
The Alien vessel let out a loud, low pitched growl as it became engulfed in a green explosion. Excaliber sighed loudly as she directed her ship to face the ground settlement she was defending. She pushed her throttle up and cruised towards the war torn buildings. “T-This is Commander Excaliber Kahn, requesting emergency docking. Canopy is blown and I may be injured.”
“Emergency docking approved, rescue crews will be standing by in hangar bay Zero-Seven.”
Once Excaliber docked her heavily damaged ship, she slowly stood up from her chair. Her knees felt weak as she stumbled out of the cockpit and through the ship’s interior. After slowly making her way down the ladder of her ship she jumps down onto the hangar floor. She takes two steps towards the waiting rescue crew before collapsing from exhaustion.
I did it… Hope you were watching, my love.