The Song of Steel

Ethan looked around, trying to find a way onto the ship, and then he saw it.

"Hurry, lets hitch a ride on the cargo truck that's heading towards the ship."

Ethan then sprinted at top speed towards it.

"Private, put your foot on the brake now!"

Reacting quickly, Kohma herded everyone into the truck before hopping in himself and shoving the soldier out of the vehicle.

"Sorry!" He shouted to the stunned man as he slammed down on the gas, bursting forward at an alarming speed and leaving skid marks all over the place.

The truck came to a halt right outside the boarding ramp with a man waving at them.

"GET IN THE SHIP, NOW, 30 seconds to lift off"

With that Ethan ran up the ramp and threw himself inside.

Ryan jumped off the truck, sprinting onto the ships ramp. Gasping for breath, he said, "Well... Today certainley has been eventfull. Who's up for some scotch?"

"Get inside!" Kohma shouted to the rest of the party as he did a flying leap through the door.

"We made it! God damn that was lucky!" He shouted in relief, wiping the sweat from his brow. Ryan began speaking, but all he heard was "scotch."

"I'm up for some." Kohma responded, just as the ship parted ways with the ground, in a mild shudder of turbulence.

Gesturing towards the group, Ryan set off down the hallway, banging on the walls as he went. "See, I know some old tricks poeple used to pull to smuggle contriband in on big ships like this. Now, sometimes, they stored the stuff in the walls..." Stopping in front of one panel, Ryan pulled off the plate, revealing a black box. Opening the box, Ryan pulled out a large bottle of cheap scotch, to which he helped himself to a large drought.

"Booze!" Kohma said happily, producing a bottle of brandy from the box. But when he went to drink from it, the ship lurched violently, causing him to relinquish the bottle and it's contents to the floor.

"What the hell was that?!" He demanded, striding over to a porthole and peeking through. He gasped, although it should have been expected: They were right in an amongst the ensuing air battle, taking hits the whole time. "Great Scott! I fear this won't end well." He said, grabbing a bottle of whiskey. He had a feeling he'd be needing it.

Suddenly, the soundspeaker on the wall began to talk at them, "This is captain Qybrash speaking." The box said, in a voice as calm as the wind, "We are now passing through enemy lines. Do not be alarmed, as our shields should hold long enough for us to make the jump to hyperspace. All the same, hold on to your seats. It's going to be a bumpy ride."

"Great." Kohma grumbled, downing a bit of his drink. "I've always hated flying."

"We should move, a random hall way is not a good place to be if the ship starts taking hits."

Ethan walked up to a ship map. He then pointed down a hall way.

"That way, its where your supposed to go if you have no real place on the ship."

Ryan chigged the contents of the bottle, then tossed it aside. "Ok, NOW we can go." Wiping his mouth, Ryan set off in the direction of the designated area he was supposed to be in.

Their destination turned out to be a rather spacious observation deck, surrounded on almost all sides by immense glass walls. It was almost startling how close the battle seemed from inside that crowded little room. "Shove over!" Kohma grumbled to one particularly obese man who happened to be in his way. "Looks like this is where everyone on the whole bloody vessel decided to be." He complained, angrily.

He took another swig of whiskey to help calm his nerves. Seeing all of those smaller ships break apart and explode all around them didn't make him feel very safe.

kadin had followed the group onto the ship and to the observation deck.

he could here people griping and getting angry. he could feel a brawl coming on but he didnt know when it would happen or who would start it.

kadin returned to the group."hey i umm dont think we should hang out here all these people bunched up normally spells disaster" said kadin bobbing his head to the hall he just came through

Ryan looked out of the glass wall, watchign the explosions of shells and fighters around them, and said, "Ya. I think we should go someplace else. Someplace that isn't made of glass, or vulnerable to death. I suggest someplace with Vodka as well."

"It should be alright. That 'glass' is probably made of vastillium, and would be quite a bit harder than mithril. And even if a hole opened up in the wall we wouldn't get sucked out, since the deflector shields are still online." Kohma said, trying to make himself feel better more-so than his friends.

He took another much needed swig.

Ethan was watching the battle intently, until a high pitch wine followed by a voice came over the loudspeakers.

"Any person with any main gunner experience or piloting experience please report to the bridge, a crazed civilian made there way up here and manged to shoot both. I repeat we need replacements for the ships gunner and pilot."

Ethan looked at his group around him.

"I should head up, Ryan you too, hell the rest of you should get up there with us, the bridge is the safest place on a ship like this."

"HELL YEA" shouted kadin as he started plowing his way through the crowd to the bridge.

"Damn that crazed civilian of a murderous bent! How are we to dig our way out of this shithole if our own people are shooting us up?" Kohma complained. At least now he had an answer for the gunfire he thought he'd heard nearby...

Ryan looked at Ethan, and said, "Are you fucking kidding me? I'm not gonna set foot near the bridge of this God forsaken ship, not after-"

Ryan was cut off by a massive explosion, just a half mie away from the Zustin. A small frigate was just hit by a Pulse Cannon, fired from one of the invading Dreadnaughts. The Frigate was knocked clean out of the sky, raining death over a very large area on the ground. Sighing, Ryan looked up, and said, "God, its me. Why do you hate me today? IS it cause I punched that Pastor?"

Shaking his head, Ryan took the bottle of whiskey from Kohma, drained it, and started for the bridge, not believing what he was about to do.

Kohma scoffed in indignation. He was nowhere near drunk enough to handle getting blown to pieces. "Just tell me what you want me to do." He grumbled, following Ethan.

"Just follow me, and if you have any skill that would be useful on the bridge, say what it is and get to it, I will grab the pilot chair and Ryan's got the gunner. Oh and if you got nothing useful to provide, just find a corner and don't talk, I don't want you thrown off the bridge."

With that they walked threw the bridge doors. spotting the captain, Ethan snapped into a salute.

"Captian you said you needed a Pilot and a gunner"

Ryan waved toward the captain, realizing that he reeked of whiskey, and probaly looked like something dragged in by the mange-ridden cat, and said, "Sir, Former Leutenant Ryan Coleman reporting. Where do you need me?"

"Erm... My skills are more suited to the battlefield, not the skies above it." Kohma thought to himself, somewhat disappointing that he didn't have anything to contribute to their efforts. Sighing, he retreated back to the observation deck where he wouldn't be in the way.

What he saw when he made it to the deck almost made his heart stop. From the dead silence that floated across the room, Kohma assumed that the rest of the passengers where in agreement that they were thoroughly fucked. "The UFP Strongburn." Kohma whispered in amazement and horror. He had only heard stories of it. "One of the four Valhallan leviathans." An aged man muttered in a defeated voice. "It's thrice as big as our own vessel!" Another man whined with fear.

"... Oh shit..." Was all that Kohma had to say on the matter.

"holy fuckbiscuits... i thought i was over and done with this thing a long time ago" said kadin as he watched the huge ship roll on bye.

Ethan was about to formally introduce to the captain when a monster appeared in the main view port.

"Capetian we should take our positions now, there's a Leviathan coming across the port bow."

Ethan was already in the pilot seat formalizing himself with the controls.

"Ryan fire the moment you got a shot."

Ethan then started putting the ship through its passes, trying to get behind the monster, he heard a rumor that was there only burble spot.

Gazing at the monsterous Levaithan that had crossed their path, Ryan dashed into action. Stumbling toward the Weapons Station, Ryan wiped the blood from the console, and immediatly got to work.

Shouting at Ethan, Ryan said, "I need you to give us some manuevering, now! We gotta get out of here!"

Aiming the pulse cannons at the Strongburn, Ryan changed the mode of fire on the cannons to a EMP pulse, and started to unload on the enemy ship. Glancing worriedly at the screen, Ryan said, "Captain, Theres no way we can take that thing out! Even at this rate of fire, I wont be able to take out it's shields anytime soon!"

For a moment, Kohma thought they might have a chance as their hits flew through the vacuum of space towards the abominable hulk of steel before them. “Why isn’t it firing back?” He wondered aloud, but he got an answer a moment later.

“Oh fuck… It’s turning toward us!” He realized with a jolt. Regardless of it’s nearly limitless supply of enormous guns, the first thing that one would notice of the Strongburn would be it’s long, pointy, swordfish-like nose for penetrating and boarding large vessels.

And then, with a mighty lurch, the leviathan kicked it’s thrusters to maximum, and sailed toward them as quick as lightning. Kohma’s skin burst into goose-prickles as he realized that the leviathan’s boarding appendage was heading right for the observation deck. “Shoot it down! Shoot it down!” He shouted in vain, but the Zustin-1’s munitions merely rolled off of the Strongburn’s deflector shields and flashed harmlessly into the darkness.

Kohma recalled screaming, followed by a forceful smash and tear, followed by louder screaming as the appendage tore through the vastillium windows, ripping into the Zustin-1 mere yards from where Kohma was standing. A multitude of civilians had been ripped apart during the penetration, leaving a gory swath of destroyed body parts all over the floor, right in the middle of the crowd.

Before anyone could react, the chainsaw-units on the appendage powered down, and several doors along the shaft opened, from which soldiers clad in red and black spilled out. “Open fire!!” One man shouted, his voice muffled by his helmet. In an instant, hot plasma flew through the room, turning people into melting, putrid chunks of screaming ooze as they died.

Snapping into action, Khoma drew his sabres just in time to deflect a fatal blast of plasma, sending it back towards the shooter, who began to rapidly decompose in agony. “C’mon, shoot the bastards!!” Khoma shouted to a group of friendly soldiers toward the back, who quickly remembered their duty and began to fire their weapons. They managed to kill a few, but in the end they were abruptly slain as a rocket careened into them, blowing them to messy smithereens. The ship lurched a bit as the Zustin-1 tried to maneuver off of the appendage, but it was met with failure.

“Oh Goddess of War!” Khoma shouted as he deflected another shot towards a man busying himself with the stabbing of a child, “I swear to stop viewing pornography if you’ll only grant me a swift hand!”

He hoped she listened.