(1 rating) Rate this Story (5 best) 1 2 3 4 5

Nigel dove for the ground. Nothing happened. Either he had not moved or everything had moved with him. The sound was now unbearable causing Nigel to cover his ears, but he could not feel his hands and the sound did not change. As a last resort he flung his arms in front of his face. There was no effect. Instantly a deafening roar shook his entire body as thousands of flaming embers fell all around him.
Swirling madly about Nigel, the embers flared brightly and faded away one after the other until just two remained and there was no sound except the ringing in his ears. The last two embers began to expand as if they were coming closer. The cinder on the left seemed to be nearer than the one on the right and filled Nigel's vision until the other spark was no longer there. He tried reaching out to touch the ember, hoping to prove that it was not real. When he felt his finger touch the hot surface, pain exploded in his arm as he was thrown violently away, stopping only when he made contact with a solid surface. The impact crumpled him and blackness followed.
Dazed, Nigel reached out for support and found a metal surface with right angles jutting out of a wall. He felt around blindly until he found a suitable surface to leverage himself erect with. Everything sounded very muffled as if someone had packed his ears with pillows and pushed him underwater so that when he opened his eyes, the nightmarish scenes nearly dropped him again. Leaning heavily upon what looked to be a computer console, Nigel took several breaths to steady himself. All around him pipes had ruptured sending shrapnel into the walls of the room he was in. Sparks sprayed from exposed wires and smoke was beginning to fill the ceiling.
Slowly his hearing returned bringing an overload of sounds. Alarms, explosions, creaks, and groans crashed into his brain causing a sharp pain in his temples. A violent explosion far off caused the entire room to shake. As he steadied himself, Nigel had a flash of memory.
Three weeks ago the Alliance Battleship Aston was given the mission of verifying probe reports of enemy activity in the Wallace IV system. The probes, placed in orbit around the planet a month before, had detected close contact with Drakon military ships. At the time the mission was prepared intelligence, after reviewing the data from the probes, had concluded that only frigate and destroyer class ships were present. No real match for the Aston. As a precaution, fleet command was preparing a larger follow up force to secure the strategically vital system, but the force would take at least another week to assemble and time was critical.
Wallace IV was significant because of its location on the extreme end of the contested boundary between the Drakon Empire and the Alliance. The Alliance hoped to use the planet as a staging area for a flanking maneuver; however, should the system fall into Drakon hands, they could reverse the strategy and gain an advantage in the war.
After the alarm signals had arrived from the probes, Admiral Morten assigned the follow-up mission to Captain Isha of the battleship Aston, which was just finishing a re-supply visit.