Battle For The Blue Planet Chapter 2: The Wrath of the Red Spark

Beams of plasma arced past the bridge as the Zenti unleashed against the Red Spark. Engines strained as the ship dipped and dodged never sitting in one place long enough to be caught. Her Captain urged the crew onwards trying to lead the Zenti away from Earth, but to no avail. The carrier’s escorts were bearing down on them while the lumbering capital ships burned hard for the planet.

Deciding that defense was no longer an option, Bonnie ordered the Red Spark to turn about, into a melee fight with the carrier’s escorts. Point defense weapons spat angry lines of fire into the void tearing through the ranks of Zenti ships as the Red Spark loosed a volley of torpedoes at the Exterminator forcing it to turn away from the planet buying time as it forced the ship to shift its momentum.

Bonnie ordered the Red Spark into the gap its torpedoes had opened. Hoping to close the range and break into the ranks of the Zenti so they couldn't shoot without risk of friendly fire.

The plasma was coming thick and fast as the Red Spark closed into gun range with the carriers. Blooms of energy erupted from the Red Spark as Zenti plasma crashed into her shields. The ship rattled and shook, seeming to rage as its body was battered and bruised by the guns of the carrier’s escorts chasing it. They were trying and failing to pin down the Red Spark so the guns of the capital ships could finish her off. However, Bonnie Red had no intention of just taking this lying down. The Red Spark’s weapons were charged and prepared to fire back.

“We have a lock on a carrier Captain!,” Cried Charlie, the weapons officer.

“Fire away lieutenant, split them from bow to stern!” Bonnie replied. A maniacal grin spread across her face as she saw the carrier come into point-blank range.

Her plan had worked. The Red Spark was dancing a ballet of death, lighting up the void in a blaze of glory as she wound through the Zenti squadron cutting down several Zenti carrier escorts. The Red Spark danced deeper into the formation until she reached the carrier and dove beneath it, using the size of the titan against it as the guns of the Red Spark unloaded into the belly of the beast. Rendering its guts out into the void for all its comrades to see.

Upon annihilating the carrier, the Red Spark blew through the rear of the Zenti formation, dropping mines for all who chased her. Quickly being rewarded with explosions as vengeful Zenti escorts met their end trying to avenge the carrier they were meant to protect.

Turning about again Bonnie was faced with a cruiser having broken formation to give chase.

“Captain, they’ve got a lock on us!” Jess announced.

True to her word the cruiser then released a rain of torpedoes that screamed toward the Red Spark. Point defense cannons spat their angry fire and the torpedoes began to explode one by one. But they kept coming, more and more poured from the cruiser, each one on a quest of vengeance for their fallen brother.

“Captain, defense weapons are overheating! They’re going to start slipping past!” Announced Charlie.

No sooner had he said it than one of the lines of fire ceased. The torpedoes were getting closer and the weapons were beginning to fail.

“Cut their power and dump it all in the engines,” Bonnie ordered.

The Red Spark jumped as her engines received the energy from the cannons. Like a racehorse hearing the starting pistol, she shot off, straining her inertial dampeners as far as possible to dodge the torpedoes tracking her. To the credit of the Red Spark’s engineers, she pulled away far faster than she was ever designed for and slipped the lock of nearly all the torpedoes.

Sadly two torpedoes managed to track the Red Spark through her maneuvers and slammed into the lower decks, shaking the ship as they wrenched holes in the armor, spilling the contents of a point defense gunnery room and several cabins into the void.

“Medical and damage control to decks 3 and 4. McCoy, you take point,” Bonnie barked into the P.A. as alarms wailed on the bridge.

McCoy and his team hauled up out of their seats in the Red Spark’s forward medical bay and raced to the damaged decks to render aid to the wounded and assist in damage control. As they ran through the halls, the ship shuddered and groaned as plasma crashed into the shields.

Once he reached the fourth deck McCoy found Cookie leading the damage control crews. Smoke was billowing into the hallway from the torpedoed gunnery room. Cookie’s team was desperately fighting the fires started by the explosions.

The hull of the room had sealed itself, but not before the crew in the gunnery room were briefly exposed to the void. Forcing the damage control team to go in and rescue them before being able to fight the fires.

Five Dlamisa were left on the ground, leaning on the wall of the ship by the damage control crew. All of them were seriously injured by the explosion, but by some miracle, they were still alive, even if just barely.

The team pushed the wounded back to the medical bay as quickly as they could while rendering what little aid they were able to on the way. McCoy was talking to one of the most severely wounded trying to keep him awake, a stout male by the name of Jack Frost. He was a mess, his namesake stunning white coat was patchy and stained with blood from his wounds and he was muttering and groaning while they pushed him.

“Come on Frost. We’re almost there, don’t you dare quit on me now. McCoy begged.

In a moment of recognition upon hearing the familiar voice Frost looked at McCoy, fear plastered across his face, and said, “McCoy? I’m not ready. I don't want to go yet,” before drifting off into unconsciousness.

McCoy and his partner pushed the gurney faster, leaving a trail of blood behind them as they desperately tried to get Frost to the surgical ward. They had barely gotten another 20 feet before Frost’s vitals started to crash. McCoy, in desperation, jumped on his gurney, lanced Frost in the chest with a syringe of adrenaline, and began chest compressions. Hoping against hope to keep his hearts going just long enough to get him stabilized.

Frost’s hearts gave out less than a hundred feet from the surgical bed. They could not be restarted.

Gunnery Commander, Jack, “Frost,” was the first casualty from the Red Spark. He would not be the last.

On the bridge, things were not looking good. The cruiser was coming at the Red Spark with the intent to finish her off. Plasma cannons lit up the void as the two ships exchanged fire in a brawl. Each ship put faith in the belief that the shields of the enemy would fail first.

Like two boxers in the 12th round each was looking battered and bruised, but the Red Spark came out on top. The cruiser’s shields shattered and the Red Spark opened up with everything she had. Ripping apart the ship like a feral animal.

Turning her attention back to the fleet, Bonnie noticed that it had changed course and was again making its way to Earth, believing the Red Spark to be disabled after the clash with the cruiser.

“Helm, full ahead. Get us behind them double time! We cannot let them pass unchallenged,” Bonnie bellowed.

The Red Spark came alive as its engines burned bright, accelerating at breakneck speed to reel in the Zenti formation. Catching the slower capital ships was no challenge as the Red Spark zipped through the void at a significant fraction of the speed of light. Finally, after a few tense minutes of chasing, the Red Spark caught a lock on the carrier farthest back in the formation.

“Captain we have a lock, permission to fire torpedoes?” Charlie requested, paw hovering over the launch button.

“Wait!” barked Bonnie, “They haven't noticed us yet. Get us closer, we need to hit the Exterminator.”

So in she crept, closer and closer, until the massive frame of the Exterminator came into view. Suddenly, the cruisers and carriers turned and launched their escorts, having noticed the Red Spark on her mission.

“Captain we’re painted with locks from half their fleet! We need to move our we’re done!” Jess announced.

“Fire the torpedoes, every last one of them! We just need one lucky hit to slow the monster down!” Bonnie roared over the sound of plasma rounds being absorbed by the shields.

Charlie went to work at his station. Letting loose every torpedo the Red Spark had left in her arsenal. When he was done the Red Spark looked like a swarming beehive as dozens of torpedoes accelerated after the Exterminator.

One by one they were shot down by the point defense weapons of the cruisers and carriers until just a few were left flying. Then the Extermor’s own point defense arsenal opened up. Light filled the void as the Exterminator fired a wall of steel at the torpedoes as they neared the engines of the titan. The bridge crew of the Red Spark watched in silence as what was left of their assault was systematically dismantled by the guns of the Exterminator.

Suddenly the guns stopped. The torpedoes had entered the dead zone behind its engines and were closing fast. Of the original 49 torpedoes fired just three had made it, and as those three torpedoes sailed home, the guns of the Zenti ceased firing. Everyone watched with bated breath as the torpedoes found their targets.

The first torpedo exploded with a flash. Flames burst out of the rear of the Exterminator as one of its six massive engines sputtered and died.

Just as the last flashes of power from the first destroyed engine faded, the second torpedo met its mark. It sailed straight into the center of another engine and detonated, casting a bright blue glow across the Zenti cruisers as the explosives mixed with the output of the engine before detonation.

Not to be outshone by its comrades the third torpedo made its home between two of the remaining engines. The explosion was titanic. It ripped the two closest engines to shreds and sent a visible shockwave through the Exterminator.

Howls rose up on the bridge of the Red Spark as the crew saw their gamble pay off. They did not know at the time, but the third torpedo ruptured one of the main reactor fuel tanks cutting the power output of the ship by nearly 40%. Unfortunately, the Exterminator, while wounded was still on its way to Earth and even then was not the biggest problem for the Red Spark at that very moment.

A large force had broken off of the main group and began burning hard toward the Red Spark as she attempted to break the target locks by running back into the void. Five cruisers were bearing down on them quickly, demanding blood as payment for the wounding of their flagship.

The cruisers began to pummel the Red Spark. Their guns fired as quickly as they could be charged. Shields flashing as plasma splashed across the stern of the ship the Red Spark danced, hoping to throw off their aim, but there was just too much much fire. They couldn’t avoid it all.

The Red Spark heaved as a massive blow from one of the cruisers slammed into the stern, shattering the shields and leaving the ship with only her armor and speed left to fend off the plasma fire. It wasn’t long before even those weren’t enough. A plasma round slammed into the side of the Red Spark, just astern of her starboard plasma batteries. It ripped through decks four, five, and six destroying multiple gunnery stations for both the plasma cannons and the point defense guns. Most damaging of all, the round penetrated into the aft medical bay, destroying it and killing the medical team staffing it.

“Damage control, starboard side, decks 4 through 6, all available hands respond. Medical teams are required. McCoy get back there,” Bonnie ordered over the P.A. system.

McCoy’s blood-stained paws sat clenched on the lip of the surgery table. Frost lay there, as still as stone. Around him, McCoy’s team stared, pain obvious in their eyes at the loss of their comrade. Each of them had given everything they had to save their friend and still come up short.

The team was deep in their grief when the ship rocked from the plasma blast and the P.A. sounded, calling them to action once again. The team turned to McCoy who hadn’t taken his eyes off of Frost since calling his death, expecting orders. Instead, McCoy reached out and held one of Frost’s paws and spoke to him.

“We were so close love, just a few more cargo runs and we were going to retire to the lake, just like you dreamed of,” McCoy muttered, placing a kiss on Frost's forehead. “If there’s something after… please wait for me, I won’t be long.”

McCoy turned to the medical team who were staring at him in shock. He visibly shuddered before pulling himself together and looking each of them in the eye.

“Grab the gurneys and let’s move. We can’t save them all, but we have to try.” McCoy ordered, voice shaking.

He grabbed a trauma bag and lead the medical team out the door, sparing only a glance back at the Dlamisa whose life he had hoped to share.

Once they arrived at the scene the team split into groups to cover the three decks and immediately set to work helping the survivors. Much like in the last attack, the survivors were placed sitting up against the wall by damage control, but this time there were fewer than expected. McCoy looked around, not seeing any of the missing in the ranks of the damage control crew.

Deciding he needed answers, McCoy pulled aside one of the damage control team whose face was hidden by a gas mask and asked them, “Where are the rest of the crew that was on this deck?”

The masked Dlamisa pointed towards one of the interior doors leading to the combat compartments. Letting them go, McCoy turned to open the door and get the wounded inside but froze at what he saw through the window in the door.

Through the window, McCoy saw stars glowing in the distance.

The gash in the hull was so large that the hull auto-sealing function failed in many places. This left interior doors acting as airlocks for the damage control teams who were trying to recover what combat ability was left of that portion of the Red Spark. However, while the combat functions of the Red Spark were able to be recovered, the dead in those rooms could not. The void took them in her cold embrace.

In all, 14 would be lost to the endless void across the three breached decks.

The plasma fire thinned as the Red Spark put distance between herself and the cruisers. As she made her escape, power was allocated back from the engines to the shields to allow them to begin recharging. Despite the Red Spark having been hit hard, she was by no means out of the fight.

As the bridge crew made ready to turn about and burn for Earth to cut off the Zenti, the sensor and comms suites filled with pings. The patrol ships had arrived and they brought friends! Friends who were calling out, screaming encouragement, profanities, and prayers as they witnessed, through their sensors, everything the Red Spark had done.

“Captain we’ve left the range of the Zenti jammers and the patrol ships are hailing us!” Sunny barked out tail wagging back and forth at breakneck speed.

“Put the lead ship through. We haven’t got time to waste,” Bonnie replied.

A human filled the viewscreen. Her uniform was rough and ragged, covered in grease and burns, but the rank and nameplate on the front shone like gold, speaking her name to the world. Captain Ellana Deans of the Republic Patrol Vessel (RPV) Lightning.

“Bonnie Red, it seems we’re not a second too late. The destroyers have cut around the front of the flotilla and are laying a minefield big enough to stop a… well whatever that thing is,” She said as she gestured in what must’ve been the direction of the Exterminator.

Bonnie’s tongue rolled out as she huffed in laughter for the first time in what felt like days before replying to the captain. “Aye, if there were ever a race who could, you humans would find a way…”

Jess interrupted the Captain, reading the data from her sensor arrays, “Captain Deans, there appears to be far more of you than just the Sol patrol contingent. Who have you brought with you?”

At that Bonnie’s face became serious in an instant and she pressed the question immediately, “Who did ye bring with you? We can’t evacuate no civilians this way. The cruisers be waiting for us.”

“They may be civilians, but they ain’t planning on evacuating. Behind me and the four other patrol vessels stands the entire mining fleet of Ceres. They wanted to draw blood for their home and I am in no position to refuse them,” Captain Deans replied tersely, “All they are asking from us is to help them get in close, so they can tear the fuckers apart, plate by plate,” she spat venomously.

“Aye, we can grant them that. Have ‘em form on you for your run. We’ll draw the fire so your fine people can have their chance once you’re ready,” Bonnie growled out, eager to get the chance for real payback. “When ye be ready make contact on this channel. I need to assess me ship and crew,” she finished, closing the call as Captain Deans saluted in confirmation.

Bonnie opened the P.A. system and called her one commanding officer not on the bridge to return and report the status of the ship's casualties.

“McCoy, report to the bridge.”

Ankle deep in blood and viscera while stitching closed the last surviving patient from the plasma explosion, McCoy looked up upon hearing his name. Without a word, he passed the suture kit in his hands to one of the other medics nearby who only nodded and continued his task as McCoy left the surgery room turned horror scene. So many Dlamisa had been rolled into that room barely alive and bleeding out that the medics gave up trying to clean the operating theatre. Focusing instead on trying to save the next patient, then the one after that, and the one after that.

None of the medics were clean, but McCoy looked the worst of them all. The blood caked into his fur layer after layer all over his arms, chest, and legs. A sick reminder of how he was carrying the ones he couldn’t save.

As he walked to the bridge, bloody pawprints followed him. They followed past the torpedo holes in the bow and the empty rooms exposed to the void to the stern. They tracked him through corridors with burn marks on the walls and bloody puddles on the floors. The paw prints stayed with him, all the way to the bridge, as if the dead stood behind him hoping to make one last report to their captain before passing on.

Bonnie Red didn’t turn in her chair as she heard the door to the bridge open. In front of her was a datapad from the engineering officer detailing the structural damage done to the ship. The Red Spark had taken many hits and wasn’t looking great, but she surmised, the ship was still flyable and could continue the fight. Bonnie gestured to where she heard McCoy enter the bridge, beckoning him over so she could hear his report.

Her first indication that something was wrong was the silence of the bridge crew. The background drone of officers at work had stopped, leaving the bridge eerily silent. The next clue hit her like a freight train. She smelled blood, lots of it.

Bonnie whipped her head up and locked eyes with McCoy. Standing before her, swaying from foot to foot was her exhausted medical officer. He was so covered in blood from head to tail that Bonnie was shocked he was even alive.

“Grab me the medical kit!” She barked out to the other officers on the bridge before turning and grabbing the ship’s medical officer in a panic, gently placing him in the captain's chair, “McCoy! Sit down! Where are you injured? What happened!?”

McCoy reached out and placed a paw on his captain's sleeve, stopping her questioning in its tracks as she locked eyes with the bloody doctor as he began to give his report.

“21 were killed in the immediate aftermath of the torpedo and plasma damage. 7 have died since. 5 are severely wounded and won’t last much longer. 32 are wounded, but stable in the remaining medical bay,” McCoy said quietly, pausing to take a breath as his voice cracked and began to rise. “I can’t save them, Bonnie… They beg me not to let them go, but I must! If I don’t, two others will die waiting, calling out for help, help I can’t give them Bonnie!” McCoy gasped out, sobs wracking his body as he continued to speak, “I’m failing them, Bon. They’ve never needed me more and I’m failing them!”

McCoy’s speech became unintelligible as his emotions took over. Quiet sobs wracked his body as the bridge crew stared on in mute horror. The doctor they all knew to be as unmovable as a mountain was shattering in front of their very eyes and they couldn’t do a thing to stop it.

Bonnie Red reached out and grabbed her friend in a hug as his sobs became silent, muffled by Bonnie’s shirt. She held him silently until he stopped shaking.

Letting him go she looked down at the doctor and saw two bloodshot brown eyes looking back with a hauntingly empty stare.

Suddenly standing up, McCoy left the bridge, tracking blood as he went, but before she could even think about calling out to stop him a light from the comms station flicked on.

The Lightning and her squadron were ready for their assault. The fighting had only just begun.