Out Of Space 5 Overwhelmed

"Noted. Pilot, push engines to 110% output, get us out of their firing envelope." Capt Blake ordered. "Drop some countermeasures, see if we can trick them for a minute or more." He continued. "All guns on target Charlie."

As the Swarm s.h.i.+ps slowed due to taking damage, the distance pulled apart from 3,000 km to 4,000 km. Yet the Swarm s.h.i.+ps regroup and continued to barrage and chase UNS Singapore.

"Captain, Gun one can't train and target Charlie, it's at its blind spot!" WO Yan Fey said. He wiped his free-flowing sweat off from his face. "Do I re-acquire another target?"

"Yes, make it so. Next time don't ask me. Just do it and inform me." Blake replied. He looked at the main tactical display screen. Seven mins more to the Ecythn Jump Point. "Prepare the warp drives."

"Captain, engineering reports wrap drives are on ready to go. But the engines can't take 110% output much longer! They are overheating badly." Ford looked up from his console.

"How long can the engines last?" Blake asked.

"Four more minutes, tops," Ford answered. "Than the computer will auto shutdown the engines and begin to cool down procedure."

"Understood. Pilot drop to 100% power but be ready to push it up to 125% on my command." Blake ordered.

The whole bridge turned and look at their Captain. Are you sure? can be seen on their faces. "Back to your duties! The Captain knows what he is doing." Ford snapped.

"Captain, with all respect, don't you think its too risky go 125%? The engines might blow and we will be stranded here." Ford whispered as he stood beside the Captain.

"It will be fine. These things were built to last. Not like the s.h.i.+ps these days." Blake looked at the counter from seven mins change to 11 mins. "We just need it to give us enough inert force to enter the jump point. Then we call for help. The Fleet supply depot there can rescue us even if our engines are burnt out."

-----

Deep in the bowels of Engineering B deck 12, continuous gunfire echoed up and down the deck. "We need backup! Ray and Hawk are down!" Sgt Collins yelled into the command network comms. "We can't hold them back! We are pulling back to deck 10 !" He paused to fire at the rus.h.i.+ng horde, watching his shots knocking the creature down. It shook itself up and starting rus.h.i.+ng forward again. "Back! We can't hold them here. Get back to deck 10!" He instructed Leeds and Drake before throwing a stun grenade at the ma.s.s of claws and chitin.

The concussion from the stun grenade disorientated the drones long enough for the three to retreat back. As they fell back they sealed and locked hatches to slow the Swarm down. Panting, Sgt Collins led Pvt Leeds and Pvt Drake to link up with the rest of Section Four.

"Sarge Collins, what's going on?" Asked Cpl Jenkins. With him were Lance Corporal Royce, Pvt Dean and 4 other white-suited techies armed with 5mm PDWs. Everyone is looking at Sgt Collins with antic.i.p.ation, other than Leeds and Drake who leaned against the bulkhead panting.

"Form a firing line here. d.a.m.n things are coming!" Sgt Collins said. "Those peashooters of yours can't do much damage. Those sc.u.m are d.a.m.n hard to kill." He pointed to the techies' weapons. "Go find something to act as barricades. We hold them off here."

The techies look at each other and nodded. "We got some heavy machinery movers. Those can block the pa.s.sageway."

"Great! Get on it and tell Chief Matt to evacuate non-essential personnel away." Sgt Collins instructed.

"Yes Sarge." with that, the techies ran off down the hatchway. Not long, a couple of forklifts driven by the techs arrived and was directed by Sgt Collins to park in alternating zones to create an S-shaped funnel. The techs locked the wheels and jammed the fork arms against the deck to prevent the vehicles from getting knocked away easily.

Screeching sounds of metal and unearthly cries echoed down the hatchway. "Get ready! They are coming! Remember aim for their mouth or their weaker joints. These p.u.s.s.y rounds can't penetrate for f.u.c.k!" Collins yelled. "You guys, clear the area! Get back to Engineering."

"You guys take care!" The techs left the area and return back to the engine room.

"S4, S4 come in! This is Eagle. Over"

"Eagle this is S4 actual. Currently in combat with sc.u.ms. Two men down. Request immediate support! Over" SGT Collins commed back.

"S4, Eagle. Roger, sending S3 to your location. Standy by. Over."

"S4 copy that. Over and out." Sgt Collins turns and says, "Section 3 is coming to reinforce us. So we gonna have to hold here till they come!"

"HOO-RAH!" Section 4 yelled. "Kill them all!"

The warrior drones rend and torn the hatches that stood between them and their prey. Their senses allowed them to locate the tasty meat through a mix of psionic waves, smell and taste. They "see" things by sensing their "life" aura, a kind of energy to the Swarm, even the engines and reactor fueled with Helium 3. Live prey shows up as a yellowish white pulsing ma.s.s while pure energy sources show up as a red white ma.s.s. The drones communicated telepathically and divided into 2 groups to harvest those energies.

The first group continued to systemically rip open the sealed hatches to reach the live prey, while the second group tore right through the decks to reach the ma.s.s of angry red aura only which the Swarm could sense and see.

"Here they come!" The lead warrior drone slammed against the forklift, causing it to tilt down and crash to the deck on its side. "Fire!" Sgt Collins commanded. Five M7A1s blazed a hail of ceramic bullets that shattered the lead drone backward. It struggled to raise but appeared to have broken several bones in its body. The Marines than switched to the next target behind but as one drone went down, three more appeared to take its place.

"There's too many! f.u.c.kers can't die!" Pvt Dean shouted as he reloaded his third magazine. He suddenly found himself flying in the air towards the onrus.h.i.+ng Swarm. "What?" He looked down at his chest to find a claw latched to his armor flipping him upside down. "Nooo!" Pvt Dean screamed as he disappeared into the ma.s.s of thras.h.i.+ng claws and teeth.

"f.u.c.k! Dean is gone!" Lcp Royce screamed. He crouched behind a stack of engine maintenance parts, trying his best to shoot at the joints or mouths parts, but its so hard to hit as the creatures utilized their head carapace as a form of s.h.i.+eld to advance. He snapped fire at the exposed legs, sending one of the drones cras.h.i.+ng down, and fired a burst into its exposed mouth as it struggled to crawl up. "Sarge! We can't hold!"

"Hold, G.o.dd.a.m.n it! Section 3 is almost here!" Sgt Collins reloaded his rifle and fired at a warrior drone which climbed on top of a toppled forklift. A searing pain tore through his left side as another warrior drone appeared and slashed at him. "f.u.c.k this! Use frags! He yells as he steps back.

"Frag out!" Two fragmentation grenades were thrown by Pvt Leeds and Cpl Jenkins. Both of them aimed their toss behind the upturned forklift to prevent fratricide. The M144 AP Fragmentation Grenades packed 70 tungsten ball bearings surrounding a 25g core charge of C-9 explosives. The resulting explosion of the explosives turned the tungsten b.a.l.l.s into bits of plasma that could burn through 4 mm thick armored steel.

The dual explosions lifted Sgt Collins off his feet as the shock wave carried him back a couple of meters, dumping him painfully against the bulkhead. Dozens of molten holes could be seen on the forklift's hard plastic structure that protected the rest of the Marines. Alarms blared and warning of several breaches in the hull screamed. For the area around the blasts, nothing lived except two new small pits with the edges still smoking red. The Swarm took the brunt of the explosions in their midst, shedding them to bits and pieces. As the auto fire suppression system kicked in, a dark shape emerged through the foam.

Lcp Royce dropped face down as he was cut in half by the warrior drone scythes limbs. The rest of the section was still recovering from the shock of the blast were cut down one by one. Pvt Leeds lost his left arm as he attempted to fire his rifle before losing his head. Pvt Drake managed to skittle across the deck as he dodged the multiple slas.h.i.+ng limbs of the warrior drone.

Just as he ran out of the area to dodge, with the warrior drone looming over him, sudden gunfire sends the warrior drone retreating until he collapsed from the hail of bullets from Section 3.

"Medic!"