HORIZON: The Fall

Chapter One - Beginning of the End (1)

ACT ONE - THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Some people are born into leadership. Others are forged into it. Battle after battle after battle – that will reveal who is truly willing to risk it all in the name of their ideals. You ask yourself: Am I that sort of person? Only time will tell.

LOCATION: ORBITING ARK IV (ARK SYSTEM)

The planet below us looked serene – tranquil, almost. Its beautiful plains, lush forest, and gleaming cities were all within our grasp. On a normal day, I would have been delighted to go down and uncover its secrets.

But this was no normal day.

Explosions rattled the ship. The battle was raging all around us. Fighters engaged in their deadly dance, and my ship, the Armatus, flew through the hail of fire with the grace of an angel, its green plasma batteries hitting enemy ships with satisfying explosions. Admiral Jones's fleet flew all around me, attempting to do the same to their targets. They, unlike the Armatus, didn't have the extremely high tech shielding and weaponry. Being the most advanced ship ever made by humanity, however, gave me that technological advantage.

"Captain! The Palermo can't take much more!" Kar'Leenia yelled.

Kar'Leenia was one of the reptilian Kar'Thonians of Karth. She was odd – not because of her race, but because of her personality. Most Kar'Thonians were full of emotion, and wouldn't hesitate to talk your head off. Not Kar'Leenia though. She was about as emotional as a brick.

An explosion ripped through the escort ship next to us, bits of debris crashing into our shields. A couple of escape pods managed to get free of the ship, but they were soon picked up by smaller ships from the enemy fleet. Where they were taking them, no one knew. Unfortunately for the Admiral's fleet, the Hierarchy's ships outclassed them in shields and in firepower. The only thing keeping our fleet's power close to the Hierarchy's was the massive laser cannon on some of our ships, mostly the cruisers. Even with this, though, a quarter of our fleet was lost, blown to smithereens by the Hierarchy's devastating weapons.

"Enemy destroyed!" Callia screamed over the alarms.

Callia was... man, everyone I knew was so difficult to describe. She was like the mother of our ship – and was not in a relationship with me. She was busy coordinating the gunners' attacks.

A massive beam of blue light split a nearby enemy ship in half, fired from one of the fleets' cruisers behind us. Those behemoths were basically built around one main cannon, and our current objective was to soften up targets for the cruisers to annihilate. This meant I was busy coordinating with the other frigates in our battlegroup on the best way to tackle each enemy ship. As we got deeper and deeper into the battle, our numbers got lower, and the ships only kept getting more powerful.

I leaned towards the coms. "All fighters, form up and target these coordinates!"

My battlegroup had just reached the destroyer line, and fire support from the cruisers was starting to lull noticeably. One wing of fighters fired their torpedoes at an enemy ship ahead of us, but unfortunately for them, their target simply shrugged them off easily, as if they were nothing but a minor annoyance. Every shot that we fired simply seemed to absorb into its shields, but soon, the plasma started burning through its armor, indicating a loss of power to their shields.

"How are our shields doing?" I asked one of the bridge officers.

"Shields are at seventy-five percent, sir, but they're holding steady," he replied.

A purple beam of light tore through another one of our ships, which didn't even have time to launch its escape pods. A much larger ship entered the scene – maybe a cruiser? I couldn't place it. No matter its class, the ship's massive batteries unleashed hell on our fleet, and most of our ships didn't have a chance to react; they began dropping like flies. Some of them managed to get escape pods off, but others didn't have enough time to escape the massacre.

"Kar'Leenia, do we still have warheads?" I asked.

"We do, captain, but what do you suggest we do with them?" she hissed.

"Are those fighters still taking the escape pods?"

An officer nodded her head.

"I want a warhead placed in an escape pod, rigged to blow once the door is opened. Launch it as soon as possible," I commanded.

Someone rushed down the staircase, and I focused on the battle in front of us. Our numbers were still dwindling, and the cruisers were taking their time getting to us – I had to make a decision.

"Battlegroup Prometheus, hold positions and form a defensive barrier. We're going to wait for those cruisers. Corvettes, I want you to dive in and give them a little bit of trouble, but try to stay close to us," I ordered into the coms.

Almost immediately, the ships in my battlegroup slowed down and formed up around the Armatus – they wanted to stop as much as I did, apparently. It looked as if we had four frigates left, not including the Armatus. And maybe eight escorts and six corvettes? The battlefield had become littered with countless debris; it was obstructing my view, making it impossible to tell just how many ships we had left.

"Captain, the escape pod has been launched," an officer reported as he made his way back up the stairs.

"Excellent," I replied. "How close are the cruisers?"

"They're starting to get closer, sir, but their escort fleet has nearly been cut in half. One of the cruisers has hull breaches on multiple decks."

"Open a channel to Admiral Jones," I instructed. The officer nodded, and after he signaled to me, I spoke into the com. "Admiral, we're detecting heavy losses in your escorts. Need a hand?"

A garbled voice came through. "Captain, you need to focus on your push."

"That's a negative on this end, ma'am," I replied. "We aren't going to be making any progress over here."

The Admiral sighed. "That is... unfortunate. Pull your group back."

Just as I was coordinating our retreat with the other captains, a blinding flash of light came from deep within the enemy lines. The debris from whatever ship was caught in the explosion flew out in all directions, their fleet taking heavy losses. Metal and other strange building materials peppered their fleet. My bridge officers all began to cheer, and even I managed to smile a little bit.

"What ship was that?" I asked.

"It looks like..." Callia trailed off for a heartbeat. "Yep – that was their command carrier."

My group hastily retreated, eager to recuperate, flying swiftly back to the behemoths. My corvettes rushed ahead of the group, landing in the cruisers' hangars to rearm. The massive vessels stopped their advance, the escort fleet taking up positions around them. My battlegroup merged with the escorts and soon we were able to hold the line.

I sighed, releasing a breath I didn't realize I was holding. "How are our losses, Callia?"

"Our group has lost about half of its forces. The escort fleet has lost three quarters of its force, Battlegroup Aquarius has been eliminated, Battlegroup Ohio lost a quarter and is currently regrouping with us, and one cruiser has been completely destroyed," she reported. "Half of our fighters have been demolished. All in all, I would say about half the fleet is completely obliterated."

"Okay..." I murmured, somewhat shocked by her answer as I ran through the numbers in my head. If one cruiser had been eliminated, that meant we only had three left. "Thank you. Call back the fighters to be refueled and rearmed."

"Captain, it looks like the enemy is retreating!" someone called.

Cheers echoed through the bridge. The enemy ships had turned back toward their own carriers.

"They aren't retreating," I muttered, squinting as I leaned forward.

Several more ships jumped onto the scene. Just when I had thought that their reinforcements had finished arriving, a huge dreadnought appeared, easily three times the size of our cruisers.

Damn it.

I narrowed my eyes. "We've only managed to kick the beehive."