11:00 IST, Eleventh day, First month, 3079 PV | Valker>Likaz (~50%) | Altair Battleship / Officers lounge
I, the worthless piece of junk Kovon Ducker, am currently doing pretty well. I'm currently a contestant in humanity's trial of ascension. Speaking of, we are in the midst of the first trial. A scavenger race consisting of four altars we must complete around the Milky Way galaxy. Specifically, we just completed the first altar and are on our way to the second.
My current status: a pillow for a certain troublesome platinum-blonde haired girl. How very ordinary. It's almost as if we're not in a cutting edge prototype ship quadrillions of kilometers from the sol system. We are just, normal I suppose. When you put us together we truly can just endure anything and excel.
Well, it seems this is about to be tested yet again.
Alt:"Warning, Hyperspace interference detected, hyperspace travel interruption in seven seconds. Brace for deceleration. Expect hostiles."
With this declaration comes a lot of warning sounds and sirens. Ray immediately wakes up, ready for whatever is about to happen. Nought two seconds afterwards, Initae teleports before us.
"Ko! Quickly, make a barrier of raw and shifter inae around the three of us. Immediately."
She uses her skier affinity, so I instantly comply. I channel as much inae as I can to make a barrier around Initae, Ray and myself. Initae seems to be deeply concentrating herself. What the klack is about to happen.
Screeeeech-BOOM! (I have no clue how to write onomatopoeia, you shall have to interpret)
Even through the barriers I feel as though reality is being torn to shreds. I feel like my entire body is being torn apart and compressed repeatedly. My ears are ringing, I can't seem to see either. I recover after what feels like a few seconds.
Alt:"Warning, hyperspace interrupted, detecting seven battleship class signals. Determined to be a source of hyperspace interdiction and presumed hostile. Activating defensive measures."
Initae:"Ko, don't you dare let those barriers drop. And hold on tightly to Ray."
Given the situation, I grab Ray very tightly and she does the same. After a few seconds I can start to.. Hear? What sounds like rain droplets against a metal roof. Several seconds later, I start to hear many loud explosions very quickly. Moments later, the room we are in is sent spinning and I grab even tighter to Ray.
After a few more seconds, I feel a pulse of energy. Far stronger than anything I've ever felt. It reminds me of the feeling of when a grenade goes off next to me in an online FPS game, but far stronger.
The lights go off. Initae seems to relax slightly. But we are now sitting in pitch darkness, after who knows what happened. Ray is the first one to speak.
"WHAT the Klack just happened!?"
Initae:"Well, it seems we were attacked. I have protected this room within a bubble of inae. The rest of the ship has been vaporized. We are the only survivors. There are currently seven battleship class hostiles that we are drifting away from. They don't seem to recognize us as a target, thankfully."
Ko:"What do you mean the ship is gone? What about the crew?"
"The crew are all dead. The hostile ships shot us and broke through the repulsor shields.
The core power spine then got hit. Due to its fragility in containing antimatter, the entire ship vaporizes if it gets core damage. The antimatter detonation was that pulse of energy you felt. Thankfully, I managed to shield and seal this room, so we weren't vaporized along with the ship.
By the way, do not remove that barrier. We are currently in a vacuum in space. You will quickly be killed, your suits cannot adequately shield you from the local star's radiation."
Ray:"You mean, it's all gone? What the klack happened? Why did we drop out of hyperspace?"
Initae:"We were interdicted by some hostile force. Likely targeting us directly. Most hyperspace drives are pretty hard to interdict. It is likely that they found a vulnerability in the experimental one aboard the Altair and forced us to drop from hyperspace."
Ko:"So, where are we, and what do we do now?"
Initae:"We are about two hundred million kilometers from the nearest planet. It appears to be the Lokan system. I believe the planet should be mostly habitable.
However, it seems that I am unable to shift. Antimatter explosions of sufficient size destabilize the interplanar barriers in a massive area for quite a while. The Altiar had a massive stock of antimatter to fuel its very hungry hyperspace drive and engines. The explosion likely destabilized everything within about a quarter lightyear for a week or so. I cannot risk shifting otherwise It will create a temporal shockwave and destroy everything within a few hundred lightyears.
This attack must have been pre-planned specifically to kill the two of you. I can see no other explanation for the series of events."
Ko:"All the crew are dead, we are stranded in a foreign star system. We have no WRN communicators and for all we know, the hostiles are still canvassing the area."
We are in a very bad place. I place my hands over my face in defeat. However, Ray quickly tries to bring up the mood, somehow she is always strongest when it gets difficult.
"So, is there any way for us to reach that planet? Once we are there we should be able to stabilize a bit and wait till we can shift again, right?"
Initae:"I can guide this room on a trajectory to intercept the planet, but it will take about an hour. I can get us there, but I can't maintain a barrier to sustain you two as well. Traveling that fast through space takes a bit out of me. Plus I am also required to expend a great deal of energy keeping myself corporeal with reality this unstable. I am unsure of whether Ko will be able to maintain that barrier for an entire hour."
Ko:"I can do it. Just get us to that planet."
Ray:"Ko, don't you dare push yourself too hard."
"Dont worry, so long as we are together I can do practically anything."
Initae:"Umm, not to ruin your session, but can we save the flirting until we are not in the middle of space?"
Ray & Ko:"We are most certainly not flirting!"
Initae:"Okay. Now Ko float closer to me. Ima shrink the bubble to reduce the amount I have to move." At her instruction, I gently move us over until I can easily anchor myself to her. "Okay, now hold on kiddos. We are gonna go fast really quickly."
Ko:"Wait, did you say we would be able to travel there in just an hour?! You can just travel at nearly 20% the speed of light by yourself?"
"I can, but it takes a bit of effort. How else did you think I moved around battlefields when they are highly unstable from all the antimatter core explosions?
Now brace yourself, I can only dampen it to about 21Gs, your kits are tolerable up to about thirty so you shouldn't die. But it's not gonna be comfy, your barrier should remove any negative effects at least."
Moments after this. I can feel an intense acceleration. Far surpassing that of the Altair. Then a moment later we break out of the lounge and it disappears as we accelerate. I make sure to hold tightly onto my barrier and Ray.
Ray:"WOAH, this is both terrifying and fun at the same time! I mean, we are going many times faster than human ships ever have."
Ko:"Yeah, this is quite fun to be honest. Though I might not feel that way once I've had to maintain this barrier for much longer."
"Dont worry, I will be ready to tend to you when you pass out. Just ensure we reach the planet."
"Can do, I'll be looking forward to your tending, though I'd rather have it without the inae exhaustion."
Initae:"You two, what did I say about flirting in the backseat while I'm driving! Do it once we aren't in the middle of space."
Ko & Ray:"We aren't flirting! Absolutely not!"
Initae:"You know, when you two simultaneously deny it, it makes your denial a lot less credible."
Ko:"Just because we are in sync in denying false accusations doesn't make it true. It just means that we know a lie when we hear it!"
Ray:"Yeah, what dear Ko said."
Initae:"Oh forget it, you two are hopeless."
We pass the rest of the trip in mostly silence. By the way, we are traveling through space at about 20% the speed of light without any solid barriers around us. This means that we are given a stunning view of the stars as we move.
I would weep at the beauty if I wasn't struggling to maintain this barrier of inae. Which is very difficult by the way, I feel like my entire brain is on fire from such a high degree of information processing.
It is far more apparent how fast we are traveling once we approach the planet. The planet Lokan III according to Initae. It is mostly Earthlike with a heavy bias towards forests. How convenient.
Initae:"Ko, how you feeling?"
Ko:"Im here, but barely. I've got maybe two minutes left."
Initae:"Well, I guess we will have to take this entry kinda fast. Might wanna brace yourselves. Ray, be ready to grab him when he passes out. I should be able to support the three of us once we hit the atmosphere. But it's gonna be close."
I struggle hard. My entire body is trying to give out. But I refuse to let it until we hit that atmosphere. I just gotta hold on for a few more seconds.
We approach the atmosphere quite quickly. The closer we get the more my vision starts to dim. Quite close indeed.
I passed out. But I think we made it.
18:00 IST, Fifteenth day, First month, 3079 PV | Lokan System / Lokan III / Random Forest
Hmm, I feel a nice heavenly cloud below my head. It is quite nice. Very warm and just pleasant. It reminds me of something, but I can't quite recall what. The rest of my body is in pain. It feels like every nerve I have is screaming for attention.
But the heavenly cloud seems to make a lot of the pain less noticeable. I also think I can feel something stroking my head. It is also very pleasant. I can very faintly hear some form of song. It feels very familiar, a lullaby perhaps.
I come back to a fuller awareness, I am laying on my best friend Ray's lap. That's right, we were stuck in space and I exhausted myself protecting us while we travelled to a nearby planet.
I slowly open my eyes through the pain. We appear to be in a pure white building. As soon as I do, Ray reacts. She grabs my face and checks me all over. "KO! You're awake. Are you okay? What am I even saying, you're probably in so much pain. I wish I could help you more."
"You're helping plenty already. Thank you. How long have I been out?"
"Youve been asleep for about four days. We successfully landed on the planet and Initae materialized this strange shelter out of pure inae. It was so cool! We have been able to forage and gather to get food and water. But we aren't in luxury or anything. It's been quite hard to be honest. Luckily we don't have to worry about hygiene concerns."
"Well that's some good news then. Can I rest here for a while longer?"
"Ko, you can rest there for a week if you want to. I miss getting to tend to you. It seems you're always doing it for me instead. So don't you dare go thinking about debts, I owe you far more already. Even though you are just a worthless piece of junk NEET."
"Hmm, glad to know you aren't hurt Ms. Genius Prodigy Superstar. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to catch some more sleep."
I then try to fall asleep again. I find that between Ray's wonderful lullaby and careful combing of my hair, it comes quite easily.
Moments before I fall asleep, I think I hear her whisper, "Sweet dreams, dear little Ko."
Those words assure me. Whether it be this hardship or another, we will get through it together. So, bring it on.
End of Chapter 32
A/N: Welcome back dear reader. It is I, the author, once again here to ramble. What a plot twist, what shall happen to the trio? Will they recover? What about the trial? Who attacked them? I'm sure these questions will all be answered in time, so be sure to stay tuned!
As always, if you are enjoying this ever-growing story, be sure to follow/favourite/share with a friend, it is always appreciated! Until the next one, dear reader.
Cathrix