With Malice and Intent

[Travis Kroells 0]

“With Malice and Intent”

 

Travis couldn’t help but feel conflicted as the Comm came in from Smythe, ordering him and Angel to destroy the El-Aurian relay. As much as he loved to blow stuff up, part of him also wanted to stay with the Klingons. Something in his gut told him they were alright, and that pursuing diplomatic relations with them was the right thing.

 

Although he had never met one, he had read up on them, at least the NFA’s version. The UFP dogmatic views against them were obvious, so at that rate he had trouble believing the NFA’s accounts. He had trouble believing most things the NFA told him. What was propaganda, and what isn’t? After a while it really starts to mess with your head.

 

Travis sighed and shook his head as the “Styx” pulled away from the Vor’cha cruiser. He shouldn’t allow himself to get distracted. For now all that mattered was taking out that relay. Thinking about other things would distract him, and that would get him killed.

 

However, his thoughts drifted to Kestra again as he headed towards the relay. He wondered if she even felt anything, now or then. The way she pulled away in the lounge, and her aloof tone with him over the Comm made him doubt everything, which made him sick to his stomach.

 

He tried to push her image out of his mind as the relay approached, and he powered up his fighters weapons. He tapped his Comm to speak to Angel. “Open fire at will.”

 

No sooner had he said this as four phaser beams shot out from the wings of the two fighters. Travis quickly flew by, and saw for himself; no damage whatsoever.

 

“It aint doing anything boss.”

 

“Torpedoes.”

 

Travis and Archangel quickly formed up and each fired a torpedo at the relay. Again, it sat unfazed by the ships attacks. Travis sighed as he did another flyby looking for anything visible on the out side of the thing, while the higher ups were arguing about what to do about it. The general agreement on the ship was to have the Reaent take a shot at it, but Travis quickly devised away to save the ship a couple of its precious torpedoes.

 

“Angel, cover me, I’m taking care of this.”

 

The Second Lieutenant quickly acknowledged him, as Travis again flew by the Comm relay, but this type fired the tow cables that hung on the underside of his fighter. They quickly latched on, as Travis began to drag the relay closer and closer to People’s Head.

 

The Styx’s basic computer couldn’t decipher whatever the thing was transmitting, but whatever it was, the data output had nearly doubled. Travis wondered if the thing knew it was going to be destroyed, or if some other factor was causing this. He took little time to dwell on it as the Styx entered the atmosphere of People’s Head, and everything became a hot bright orange hue. He was tempted to let it go now, and let it burn up in the atmosphere. However, given the sturdiness of the relays construction, and the fact that whatever it was transmitting needed to be stopped, Travis quickly broke through the upper atmosphere and began streaking towards the now visible ground.

 

Nothing in all of his experiences was more euphoric and exhilarating then a full burn planet fall. The ground grew exponentially as Travis reached the point of no return and let the relay go. He slowly began to level out, maxing out the outdated inertial dampeners on his old fighter. The relay slammed into the ground with a tremendous explosion, causing River to smile.

 

He quickly doubled back to survey his work. The crater was massive. Not so much from the explosion, but the kinetic impact of a relay that size slamming into the ground. Confident he had terminated the data flow; he quickly pulled back on his flight stick, and pulled away from the ground which was so foreign and unfamiliar to him.