Humanity Endures

Part 3 - Light's End | Chapter 5

Having said this, Velan, with a single command to his implants, ordered them to deploy his personal pressure-shell — a compact, deployable suit stored within one's own body that would save one from dying in a vacuum for a time. Pressure shells could be deployed with but a thought and after a few seconds, but most refrained from doing so until necessary due to how unsightly the thing was, how it could slightly impede motion, as well as how it was uncomfortable to wear for longer than a minute.

The door to the bridge burst open, and through it walked Xandra, who carried in her arms two assault rifles — one for Velan, and one for herself. Velan was graciously accepting his own weapon when Terxah said, "The ship is on autopilot; we'll be alongside the alien vessel within the next two minutes. Shall I ask for a skeleton crew to remain onboard to keep the ship flying?"

"Do so," Velan replied, "Xandra, you have command of the ship until I'm back — if the boarding action is about to fail, come alongside and pick up whoever you can, if possible. If not, and if no other ship is trying to rescue survivors, destroy the ship I'm on; If I am to die on an alien ship, I want those damned aliens to die too!"

Xandra saluted and exclaimed, "Yes, sir!"

As she finished uttering the last syllable of her sentence, Xandra was unbalanced when the Nemesis began to decelerate in preparation for its boarding of one of the least-damaged alien ships in the system. Getting out of his chair and yielding it to Xandra, Velan rapped the side of his gun with his fist and exclaimed

"We've killed some aliens with our ship, now let's kill some with our guns! For our retribution, a nuke is too impersonal!"

Velan's remark was a good one, though the bridge was too fearful and consigned to death to even crack a grin. Those selected to participate in the boarding action quickly followed their captain through the bridge's bulkhead door as he moved to the nearest airlock, stopping by an arms locker mid-journey to equip themselves with proper weaponry and armor before they attempted the imminent suicide mission. Naturally, the fact that their objective was a suicidal one was not lost on anyone there, though a sense of duty, loyalty to their captain, and the number of combat drugs they had taken beforehand prevented any from so much as hesitating. As he equipped a suit of combat armor from his vessel's armory, Velan realized as his retinue plundered his ship's arms stores that this detour made his previous order to Xandra — that order that instructed her to bring him a rifle — completely pointless, but for a spur-of-the-moment decision, it had at least felt good; Velan then realized that thinking about it further would only cost himself more time, and subsequently stopped.

Storming out of the arms locker a minute later, Velan hurried through the halls of his ship to reach the nearest combat-grade airlock; once arriving, he found the majority of his ship's marines, numbering seventy-eight by the airlock, all of whom were led by Korthekar. Behind them stood anxiously a few hundred of Velan's other crew members — all in armor or pressure shells — as they awaited the commencement of what was, in their eyes, their final action in service to humanity. As Velan approached, Korthekar nodded, and, in a menacing, roaring tone, announced to all present, "I am looking forward to seeing what these aliens are made of; I am also looking forward to having it all over me, once I rip them in half with my fists!"

As he said this, the marines behind him stomped the ground and chanted "Urkah" — a marine-signature, yet otherwise meaningless sound — once. Evidently, they were as eager as Korthekar was.

Korthekar's lieutenant, a brawny marine named Jilszen, gestured to the airlock and explained to the crowd of soldiers and sailors, "The Nemesis wasn't designed for boarding other vessels of this type, and we don't have any TDPs, so that means we're doing this the fun way!"