Chapter 3

Day 3

Icarus

I floated freely in the ships cabin I was waiting for the generators to spool up for another worm hole jump. I was trying to sleep, but being stuck in the cabin of the stealth ship I expended almost no energy, I was restless.

"Why couldn't they have told me this mission would require so much down time, I would of brought some entertainment with me." I said out loud.

"I do not know sir, perhaps I could assist with your boredom" The A.I. Responded.

The sudden voice startled me, I pulled myself back into the chair typing into the console.

"How long have you been active?" I said.

"Since you asked me to calculate our course" The A.I. Said.

I frowned, thats what I had forgotten.

"What have been doing this whole time?" I asked.

"I have rechecked the calculations, I have looked over the logs for our mission and its parameters." It replied.

"Oh, okay, go ahead and turn yourself off." I said.

"Sir do you want to know my findings?" The A.I. Asked.

I raised my eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The ship sir, the one we have been sent to look for, I have found more information on it." The A.I. Said.

"Really, what did you find out?" I asked

"The U.S.S. Dauntless, 2km in length, capable of atmospheric flight, equipped with 20 marine combat golems, 4 recon golems, 2 command golem, equipped with an unrestricted experimental A.I., 12 MAC guns, 10 orbital fighters and 25 drones." the A.I. Said.

I shuddered, every child had learned about the war, what earth had done to its own colonies using Golems, as well as the A.I.'s in earth ships had continued to fight long after their ships crew had died. They had committed atrocities during the war. One story of the war was how an Earth A.I. Had rammed its ship into one of the orbital colonies causing it to crash into the planet below.

"Alright, good work, now disable yourself." I said.

"Yes sir." The A.I. Said, I could almost hear disappointment in its voice.

I shook my head, couldn't have been. I thought about the Dauntless, if what the A.I. Said was true this mission could be extremely dangerous, what ever I found I would have to be extremely careful.

Several days later.

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.

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I was ready for the final jump, I turned on the A.I. We would jump out side the solar system and make our way into the inter planets, I needed the A.I. To monitor the sensors, I guided the ship into the worm hole, a several minutes later we exited the worm hole.

"Sir I am getting multiple contacts through out the system." The A.I. Said.

I pulled up the monitor, the system was filled with hundreds of ships, of at least battleship class, my eyes widen in surprise. The sensors picked up thousands of smaller fighter sized ship, I made sure the stealth systems where engaged.

"looks like they where right to be worried." I said.

"Sir a large group the smaller ships are heading toward us." The A.I. Said.

"they are probably just patrolling there is no way they can detect us." I said.

I made sure monitor the ships, I was getting nervous as they where heading straight for me.

"Sir two of the large battleships have made to intercept us, I believe they have detected us." The A.I. Said.

I watched the monitor the fighters would be on us in a few minutes, I was shaking my head, there was no way they could see me, the Icarus was the most advanced ship in the fleet.

"Lets play dead, we have no weapons anyway, maybe they are just on a preset course." I said.

I pulled up the view of the fighters approaching, I squinted at the screen, they looked like giant spiders, the were black with a chitin type skin covering them.

"Thats not human, this is alien, screw this we are getting out of here, power up the sub light drives." I said.

I banked the ship, turning it away from the incoming fighters.

"Sir they have picked up speed" The A.I. Said.

I put all power into the engines.

"Sir they are closing rapidly" The A.I. Said.

I sent the ship into evasive spin.

"Sir they are still on us." The A.I. Said.

I felt the ship rock from an impact.

"What was that?!" I said.

"Sir the first fighter has latched on to..." The A.I.s voice died out.

Everything went dark, my ship was dead, I looked around, I punched the console, nothing happened. I could hear more impacts on the hull and grinding of metal, I went to trigger the eject when I saw arcs of electricity streak across all the metal surfaces of the ship. The nearest one lanced out taking me in the chest, everything went black.