�Good work, soldier� it said. The image was full of static, and his face was covered in blood. Steam vented in the background. �But it seems that Earth has run out of time. There�s more, too many. We�re evacuating people and troops into shuttles to go to our Mars installation, but there�s not much else we can do. Finish your work there and then you and your team are ordered to get down to the surface, and protect the civilians while our ships launch. Ground resistance is increasing fast, we don�t have time.� David was about to acknowledge him, but the connection severed. He activated the program the techs had given him and it created a network link between the command ship and the Earth�s Command Center. The ship began to jerk as it changed direction, and a timer appeared. The ship kept turning until the only thing that filled its main view screen was the enemy armada.
�They�re going to self destruct this beast in the middle of the enemy armada. I like it� David turned, and saw that it was William who had spoken.
�Yeah,� remarked Jean, �But now we�ve got five minutes to getaway from this beast before she takes us to hell with them.� She was right. David reloaded his rifle, and began moving towards the exit. As they walked, he asked Hisheena �Where are the life boats?�
She opened up a menu on her wrist implant, and a blueprint flashed on.
�Not far� In fact the entrance was in the hallway near the mess hall. Look�s like all of the boats are still here.� She tapped in more commands, and David�s eye implant conjured a marker image only fifty meters aft of his position. His pace quickened into a run, not in any way attempting to keep silence. A loud thud rang through the hull, and David fell flat on his face. He got up quickly, and continued running. The enemy knew what they were trying to do, and they would try to destroy the command ship before it had the chance to kill them.
�Missiles, sir!� Jean shouted.
�Yes, I noticed! Let�s get the hell outta here already!� replied William. They rounded the last blood stained corner to where the marker indicated the entrance to the lifeboat docking area. The doors parted, and he stepped inside. Still, no enemy personnel to be found. More missiles banged into the ship, causing David to almost trip halfway across the room as he and his team ran for the nearest lifeboat. The hits were getting more frequent, and the ship wouldn�t last much longer.
The circular door with the life preserver symbol opened in four sections, and they stepped in. It looked like a small bus, with all of its few seats facing aft. The fresh smell that lured through the cabin told David just how new this ship was, and he strapped himself into the pilot�s seat, and heard the rest of his team buckling their harnesses. The door locked, and more thuds reverberated throughout their tiny vessel. He tapped the startup controls on his right, and searched the camera functions to provide the best cover. He pressed the ignition, and a grand explosion erupted from the back of the tiny craft.
Out the rear window, the crew saw the command ship slowly come into view as they left it behind. Black scars and fiery explosions decorated the ship, as its final target became visible. The rest of the armada frantically tried to move away and destroy the ship, but to no avail. Their engines hadn�t reacted quickly enough, and their firepower wasn�t enough to stop it. The mission clock David had added clicked zero, and an orange line bisected the command ship horizontally. Though the voids of space did not carry sound, the AGF�s could still hear the screams of hundreds of people swallowed in the hot explosion of the ship. An invisible wave of destruction shot out from the ship in all directions, swallowing several other armada ships in its path. Not the entire armada, but enough to make a difference.
David began interfacing with the controls, and started browsing satellite databases for recent pictures of what was happening back on Earth. Most of the launch sites had already evacuated, but one was still severely lagging; the New Berlin Spaceport. Dozens of dropships were still docked, so that�s where he�d go. He turned the ship starboard, until finally the Earth set in the front screen. He pushed the thrusters to their maximum level, and more thunder rolled through the ship as it whined under the stress of the sudden velocity change.
The image of the Earth grew larger and larger like a giant drop of water, until it eventually was too close for his front cameras to completely capture. His crew, who sat directly behind him and gazed out the rear window at the skeletons of ships in space, remained totally silent. They entered the atmosphere, and David extended the craft�s stubby wings. G-forces gripped them and pulled them towards the blue mass, as they slowly slowed down to terminal velocity. On the screen he saw several launch craft flying past as their monstrous engines easily pushed them away from the gravity well. New Berlin showed up as a dull red marker on the screen, and at ten kilometers, David burned his reverse-thrusters. The ship slowed to a mere 800 KPH, and began to fill the cockpit with the familiar Impact Reduction Foam.
He closed his eyes, and welcomed the inevitable.
