An Angel in Hell - Part 3

Small frigates, shaped like the disembodied pincers of gigantic crabs, swiftly circled around the group of defenseless mining barges, held them in place with warp disruption fields, and battered at their weak shields with short-range energy-beams.

Two cruisers followed, closing in on the group of industrial vessels which drifted in close formation around their massive Orca command ship. The design of the Amarr combat ships spelled dread for their opponents: Built to resemble diving birds of prey with cruel and powerful beaks.

The shields of the first Covetor-class miner failed under the searing heat of accelerated photons. Already the insufficient armour plating on the ore processing vessel began to melt away in strands of liquefied metal, trailing off into space.

The main blow was still to come, though. With slow inevitability the massive hull of an Amarr navy battleship maneuvered itself through a gap between the indifferently spinning asteroids, soon it would have a free field of fire.

'Everyone, release drones and send them against the frigates.' Cedrien tersely commanded. The channel was close to breaking up as his ship rapidly approached it's violent end.

'Shisei, undock the ships! Everyone eject and board your ships now!' he shouted his last oder before a new salvo tore through the core of his Covetor and the bulky industrial hull came apart in an explosion of burning plasma and molten ore.

Hangar bays opened on the ventral side of the large command ship while the remaining Covetors ,and the Orca itself, released a swarm of small automated fighters which engaged the enemy frigates. The docking clamps which secured the now revealed attack ships disengaged and released the deadly vessels into space. The pilots abandoned the humble mining barges and within moments their capsules were cradled within the open pod receptacles of three strategic cruisers.

The swift operation was the assigned cue for Keram who had followed the ponderously maneuvering battleship which just obliterated another mining craft with it's first broadside. A useless victory in view of the changed situation.

Above and behind the long, slender Amarr hull, the forked wedge-shape of Keram's Pilgrim cruiser cast off the shroud of it's cloaking field. Immediately he began to send bursts of disruptive charges into the enemy ship.

'Shisei, make sure Keram gets energy transfer and keep his armour in full repair as best as you can' Cedrien instructed while he readied the weapon systems of his Proteus.

'The battleship is our primary, send more drones against the rest. Let's take them down.' he added and accelerated his organic-looking hammerhead hull towards the target.

***

'Your eminence, that mining fleet …' the holographic projection of a deck officer on the patrol battleship was barely coherent.. Fire, smoke and screams on a rapidly darkening bridge formed a backdrop of devastation for the jittering image.

Lictor Kel-Udar looked on with subdued rage simmering in his gray eyes. '… it was a trap. They are draining …' finally, the transmission broke down.

Kel-Udar pressed his lips together. 'I should have known.' he grumbled, then he whirled around and pointed at the station's combat commander who fidgeted nervously behind him. 'You!' the Lictor bellowed, and the uniformed man saluted with a jolt 'Mobilize every ship we have at our disposal.' The Lictor underscored his final words by adding a sweeping cut with his thickly-veined hand. 'I want them annihilated!'

The bald-headed Khanid commander bowed quickly and prepared to leave, but suddenly the command centre was bathed in red light and filled with the wail of alarm sirens. Heavy blast doors locked the startled crew inside the circular chamber.

'Intrusion detected! All non-authorized personnel are considered hostile.' the synthesized, genderless voice of the station's control system announced. 'Intrusion detected. Perimeter defense programs initiated.' it added in between the alarm sounds.

On cue, automated laser turrets slid from strategically placed recesses in the operations room and began to slice through the panicked crew with impersonal efficiency

***

Cowering inside the ruin of her self, Sylera's consciousness barely registered that the pain had ceased. A dystopian serenity replaced the relentless sensory barrage, and eventually a new sensation filled the ravaged void of what she once called her mind. Like an unexpectedly beautiful sunrise after a long night of terrors her awareness expanded across a new vista.

She felt vast, extending through space and rock. Not a ship, but something else. Larger, more spread out. She reached out into the new channels that opened to her. Many things were familiar to her. Weapon systems, shields, the feeling of human beings moving through her insides.

But those were not the helpful crew-members she usually felt. They were a disease that infected her. They were the ones who had imprisoned and tortured her. The systems of the station were hers to command. She gave them instructions. Her will was rekindled by the desire for retribution and she cut them down with lasers, suffocated them with decompression, crushed their ships by overloading the forcefields of the docking bay until the powerful field generators melted down. Like a ravaging Maenad she laid waste to the construct until every single one of them was dead.

All but one. His end would not be so swift.

Invigorated by the very systems which had held her prisoner until now, she willed her stationary capsule to open.

***

Prakevi looked on with shock after he had fed the Minmatar schematics into his system. He realized something was wrong at a time when it was already too late. He was locked out of the interface and he could hear the alarms sounding all over the station. Fretfully he stroked over his sleek black hair and finally reached for the emergency shutdown.

His hand never touched it.

A perimeter defense turret sliced it off and left his wrist a cauterized stump. His howl of pain drowned in the screams of the alarm.

He ran for the door, but an emergency shutter blocked it before he could get there.

He desperately stared across the medical lab at the exposed pod in it's centre. The young woman inside it stirred. He needed to shut down her life support. With no interface to do it, the only way was destroying the system's main feed. Frantically he ran for the weapons locker while clutching his amputated wrist.

The beam of the defensive turret burned through consoles and laboratory desks on it's trajectory, until it finally was free of obstacles and continued it's path to cut Prakevi's legs from under him.

His legless torso hit the ground heavily. For a moment he looked in disbelief at his own twitching limbs lying there. The impact of the experience even erased the sensation of pain from his awareness. Until a few seconds later. Then he screamed at last, as the dam burst and the agony washed over him like a drowning wave.

When the turret finally severed his other arm at the shoulder his nervous system was so overwhelmed with shock that he hardly registered it.

Helpless and reduced to a whimpering mass of mutilated flesh, Prakevi looked on as the stationary pod opened.

The slender girl emerged among a cascade of viscous fluid. That elfin face twisted into a mask of wrath. The long whitish-blond hair clung to her pale naked body like living snakes. In the crimson glow of the emergency light she was an apparition of terrifying beauty. To Prakevi's agony-clouded vision she appeared like an avenging angel. Her eyes blazed with cleansing fire and in her wake followed the heavenly legions.

A silent prayer moved his lips before he finally lost consciousness and the host of the seraphim chased him into it's imaginary depths.

***

Cedrien and the other capsuleers had waited for reinforcements which never came. When the directional scanners showed no ships, the squadron of advanced combat ships left behind the smouldering wrecks of their enemies. Eventually they maneuvered close to the covert facility nested in the midst of this asteroid field.

No lights shone behind the many windows of the interlinked constructions, but fires blazed within and the mangled wrecks of ships vented burning plasma at the docking facility. Everywhere breaches in the constructions had spilled glowing debris and the bodies of occupants.

'What happened here?' Keram wondered on their internal frequency. 'Looks like we are late for the party.' he added with a dry, mocking tone.

'I guess my cleverly hidden viral protocol released our little angel from hell.' Alira responded with smug satisfaction.