Bombarded

[STSF Seiben 0]

Two Weeks ago…

Civilian Freighter S.S. Perseverance

 

“Steady as she goes, Mr. Miller.” Captain Ernest Jackson nervously paced the small bridge. He didn’t like being this area of space. Earlier this week, he had read reports of pulsars in the area. Rumour had it; one other freighter was recently the unfortunate victim of a passing quasar.

 

It was a thought that shook the grizzled old Captain to the core. Being ripped apart and sucked into the abyss of a dark funnelling black hole that sucked in countless of stars, planets and ships before that one. Who knows how many lives those black holes had already claimed. He’d rather not let his ship be another casualty.

 

Jackson pushed the Perseverance farther into the radiation filled area of space. The resulting interference from the radiation was wreaking havoc on the old freighter’s systems, but he had to continue to push farther in. Perseverance was once again living up to her name.

 

A streak of light quickly hurtled its way to the Perseverance materializing into a torpedo, just barely missing the port side of the freighter’s hull, striking a nearby asteroid, which belted the ship with debris. The resulting debris hit and subsequent shockwave caused the ship to shake violently.

 

“They followed us in?” Navigational officer Carlos Perez seemed kind of shocked. “Don’t underestimate the Orions, Carlos” Jackson responded. “I hoped that stunt would have bought us a bit more time than that. Mr. Miller, evasive manoeuvres. Return fire”

 

From behind a large asteroid, emerged a large Orion attack cruiser. “Crap” was all Jackson muttered. Try as they might, the more manoeuvrable Orion attack cruiser matched the moves of the slower freighter. A few more shots from the Orion ship hit its target, hitting the Perseverance’s starboard side.

 

“Return fire!” Jackson ordered as the ship shuddered violently from the barrage of weapons fire. Sparks and cables showered down from above. “I can’t sir,” responded the tactical officer. The Andorian twitched his antenna angrily. “That last hit just took out our weapons array”

 

Jackson frowned. “Mr. Miller, head towards those asteroid fields at 082 mark 14. I don’t think that big cruiser can manoeuvre its way through that narrow asteroid field. It’s our only hope. Best speed, Anthony.” Anthony Miller gulped nervously and engaged full throttle towards the asteroid field. He hoped Captain Jackson was right.

 

The asteroid field in question was about 1,500,000 kilometres away, just behind an uncharted M-class planet and its orbiting moon. Miller pushed the Perseverance’s tired engines for all there worth. The old ship shuddered and groaned in protest, and slowly accelerated, but Perseverance was designed with cargo and smooth transport in mind. Performance was an afterthought and decades of service and neglect meant that her old warp engines didn’t offer much.

 

It was a disadvantage against the faster Orion attack ship as it quickly caught up with the Perseverance, unleashing a volley of weapons fire with two torpedoes striking their targets hitting the freighter in the stern at the warp engines. The ship immediately began to vent plasma as one of the warp nacelles broke apart from the hit.

 

The ship began to list starboard as Miller valiantly struggled to keep the ship under control. Try as he might though, the big ship continued to list, as all engine control was lost. Fires erupted all around the bridge. Jackson and the crew could practically hear the ship tearing apart around them.

 

“We’re caught in the planet’s gravity, sir” Miller responded. Jackson and the crew could only watched as the blue-green planet became larger and larger in the view screen before they finally broke into the planet’s atmosphere. “Brace for impact!” shouted Jackson as he tightened his grip on his command chair.

 

The crew held onto whatever they could as the dense jungle filled the view screen as the Perseverance hurtled for the surface. Seconds later the freighter hit the jungle surface like a rock, sending up tonnes of dirt and metallic shrapnel from the ship around it.

 

As the dust settled, sunlight seeped into the exposed bridge. Bloodied and disoriented, Miller looked around his surroundings. Sparks showered down from the ceiling and several small fires were still smouldering around the bridge. He looked around at the crew around him. He was no doctor, so he couldn’t tell if they were all dead or unconscious.

 

They all looked to be in as bad a shape as he was. Stumbling past them, he could see that the bridge had ripped in half. Where the view screen should be, Miller could look out and see his new alien surroundings. He didn’t remember seeing this planet on any star map he read, but he certainly didn’t think it was inhabited… well by any sentient being anyway.

 

In the distance, he could hear a loud roar. It certainly didn’t sound like anything he had ever heard before. It sounded large, and fairly close by. Nervously tugging at his collar, Miller returned to the relative safety of the bridge. This was certainly not the first assignment Miller had expected.

 

Fresh out of flight school, the Starfleet Academy drop out was out of his element. The credits were pretty good for a job like this, but now he was starting to regret his decision. As the lowest ranked officer on the ship, he didn’t know why the Orions were so interested in their ships. Even for pirates, the stuff in the cargo bays doesn’t hold all that much value. Coughing up blood, Miller didn’t like the situation, angry growling creatures on the surface and angry Green Orions above. He hoped that he wasn’t the only one who survived the crash.

 

To be continued…