CHAPTER I: THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE

The Whill light cruiser Krystallis was losing power as it fought desperately to avoid the pursuing Sith heavy 1,000 foot long Takava-Class destroyer Dominion. Unlike the Sith ship, the smaller 300 foot long Krystallis relied on the Kragons for primary power- the Whill light drive conversion units almost completely dependent on them. To stray too far from the guide beams meant decreased speed and maneuverability. Once out of range of a Kragon and the ship would lose all but emergency power, the photo-voltaic capacitors of limited duration. The Whill ship was falling to  Dominion, which had its own Rekurium reactor which produced the power of a red sun with an independent heavy red ion-plasma (RIP) drive.

Intense charged pulses streaked across the bow of Krystallis and along its narrow hull, jolting the heavily faceted diamond-like ship and sending its invaluable passenger, Lady Kaliah Askana, crashing into the corridor walls. Swaying as the ship veered, Lady Kaliah was slowly trying to make it under heavy guard to an emergency encapsulator located on the lowest level of the ship, halfway between the GEM (Gamnon Energy Mixer) engine compartment and the volatile light stream inter-mixers at the core.

Any direct hit on the engine compartment would raise shields automatically all the way up to the light stream core and cut them off.

The growing fear of a hostile boarding also meant that any escape by conventional escape pod would be instantly detected by the enemy ship. But encapsulators were specially designed to protect vital cargo and diplomats in the event of a potential catastrophic explosion. They were constructed of heavy rare Viktalen armor and max-shielded for protection. They also did not resemble any known escape pod but were disguised to look like heavy auxiliary machinery with hidden sensor arrays and a concealed power pack.

“Lady Kaliah, we must make it through!” yelled Commander Tango as fragments of Krystallis rained down from the corridor ceiling. Bursts from Dominion’s cannons were striking the hull and the noise was deafening.  The lightly armed Amber Commandos were Elysia’s finest and they continued to push the Seer forcefully through each entrance and hatch with great urgency. For her part, Lady Kaliah remained silent, letting her mind project the future. Already she sensed the imminent death of those around her but could not allow personal emotion to overcome the need for light to survive this enveloping darkness- no matter what the cost. The Sith must NOT gain the vision.

On the bridge of  Dominion, Supreme Commander Max-Tigon carefully watched the main view screen and the targeting systems trained on Krystallis. The Commander had an excellent view as Sith combat ships always placed their T-bridges several hundred feet above the main hull. The Elysian ship was beginning to shudder under the blasts of Dominion’s CPC (Charged Pulse Cannon) guns, called C-Packs.

Studying the consoles with absolute concentration, Max-Tigon gave the order to focus all weapons on Krystallis’ main engines, now totally exposed.  Systems operators in the bridge pits watched the power grids intensely as the guns charged to maximum power while the Sith officers patrolled the bridge with absolute authority.

Onboard the heavily damaged Krystallis, Lady Kaliah suddenly stopped. Commander Tango was about to shove her forward when her Halo-chron began to glow intensely. This is a Whill Seer’s sight recorder and without warning Lady Kaliah grabbed Commander Tango’s channet (chain-network) communicator and ordered Captain Yaren Uldar to divert all power to the port manual point thrusters and swing the ship as close to the Kragons as possible. Without hesitation Captain Uldar gave the command, “ARM PORT MANUAL POINT THRUSTERS, FIRE UNITS 1,3,5 AND 7... DO IT NOW!!!” The crew performed flawlessly and braced for the sudden shift.

Dominion had closed to within striking range and now Max-Tigon smiled in anticipation of crippling the ship at once and boarding her with a full band of hired Mazon Mercenaries, slayers of the tenth degree. With total confidence he ordered all C-Packs to lock onto Krystallis’ GEM engines. “Much too easy” he gloated to himself… but before he could fire, Krystallis suddenly came alive as the point thrusters lit up in unison on the ship’s port side pushing the ship out of range and closer to the Kragons as any ship had ever dared approach.

Max-Tigon screamed with rage, “FOLLOW HER, HELM SWING STARBOARD 3.42, RE-TRAIN ALL C-PACKS, MAXIMUM FIREPOWER AT MY ORDER!!! STAND BY TO EXECUTE”… Nervously, all the Sith officers obeyed, scurrying about as if their lives depended on success. More often than not, it did.

Captain Uldar breathed a sigh of temporary relief, but already the warning alarms had come alive as the ship buffeted the Kragon’s massive photon generation fields. Krystallis was unarmed and shielding was limited. The light conversion units were overloading and the GEM engines over heating rapidly. Speed had increased dramatically but Dominion was in fast pursuit, now attempting to outrun her and cut her off.

Back on the lower deck, Commander Tango urged Lady Kaliah onwards. “Faster, My Lady, we are almost there.“ Tango knew they could not escape the Sith ship much longer and soon they would be boarded. Timing was crucial, the plan had to work.

Descending to the lowest level, they had almost reached the emergency encapsulator when the lighting system suddenly dimmed. Tango reacted quickly, “Captain Uldar, what is our situation?” The surprised engineers in the light conversion core, gazing at the Seer and troops gathering near an encapsulator,  already knew that something was very wrong. Captain Uldar was about to speak… and then a brief silence before these words came through the channet, ”My God, he’s going for… and then silence again.

Powerful explosions rocked Krystallis once more but this time Max-Tigon was tired of playing games. One-by-one the Dominion was systematically knocking out each forward Kragon and each time Krystallis was slowing, losing power along the photon guideway. Systems began to shut down and the slow crawl of Krystallis finally became a full stop in the dead of space almost halfway between Elysia and Tirahnna. There were no known worlds nearby to escape to at this point. Krystallis was dead, drifting lifelessly as the Amber Commandos on the upper decks scrambled to the nearest entry points, awaiting a fight to the death as the emergency back-up photo-voltaic power system came online.

On Dominion, Max-Tigon ordered the assembled  Mazons to butcher all on board except Lady Kaliah. Anyone disobeying that order would be fed alive to Tirahnna’s carnivorous Tyrengas. The Mazons got the message and bowed to Max-Tigon as they charged their primitive Shuss projectile guns and their notorious Charge Thrusters- long, two-handed charged plated swords.

Only the one sought would be spared. Only one life out of eighty-five.  

Silence filled the darkened corridors of Krystallis as Dominion’s starboard grappling beams held her in place while an assault cylinder interlock magnetically attached and sealed to her hull. Then there was a brief lull until the fiery cutting charges blew apart the port bulkhead and Mazons appeared through the smoke, running through the extended assault cylinder. The Amber Commandos fought with valor striking down many Mazons with their Thermion Fighting Staffs and  Lightning Swords, but they were heavily outnumbered and fell back deck-by deck. Powerful explosions rocked the corridors and deck plating collapsed as the Commandos detonated magnetic charges in an effort to slow the Mazon advance. Despite all attempts, decks two and three were now fully engaged.

Furious fighting ensued with the white-hot thermion staffs of the Amber Commandos burning through several of the Mazons. The thermion staffs were binary chemical weapons that injected two volatile chemicals into glow rods at each end of the staff producing white hot metal tips that pierced almost anything. Right now they were piercing Mazon flesh. The smell of burnt flesh filled the decks; likewise, dozens of Amber Commandos had fallen to a volley of projectiles fired from the Mazon’s Schuss guns or were skewered alive by Charge-Thrusters. Blood pooled on the decks and bodies littered the corridors. Smoke was everywhere. The Mazons were winning the battle.

Max-Tigon boarded Krytallis once the primary decks were secured and entered its wrecked bridge. Captain Uldar was still alive… barely, when Max-Tigon grabbed him by his blood-soaked tunic and asked him where the Seer was hiding.

In one last defiant gesture, Captain Uldar hit a button on his utility belt and blinded Tigon with  a burst of aural camouflage from a light projection unit. Outraged, Tigon slit Uldar’s throat with a heat blade and ordered the Mazon’s to hunt on the lower decks, down deep in the holds and every part of the ship. “Use Black Casters if you have to, but find her NOW!!! I will await you back on Dominion.” The Mazon leader, Mag-Apalai, bowed in subservience and now, thoroughly enraged, led his attack group through the ship killing everyone in their path.

The screams of the dying could be heard all the way down through the ventilation system, the ceilings, and down the corridors to the two emergency encapsulation units. The Mazon’s were approaching and everyone in the lower compartment knew they were about to die.

Above them, the Mazon leader had used a Black Caster, a Sith obsidian encased viewing device, which penetrated everything with radiated dark matter to locate the hunted. Anything not alive did not show up, but the living shined like lights and a cluster of lights was gathered down in the bowels of the ship.  Mag-Apalai, signaled silently to below and slowly the Mazons crawled down the access ways, ready for more bloodshed.

The engineers and the Amber Commandos knelt before Lady Kaliah and bowed. She knew their fate and tears began to stream down her eyes. Commander Tango lifted his head, wiped away her tears, and said with faith, “that the light may live” before shoving her forcefully into the encapsulation unit and activating it, despite her protests. A cowardly engineer ran for the other encapsulator but was shot down by Tango and several commandos in a hail of fire.

Only Lady Kaliah must live, she is the keeper of the light.

The pain and emotional distress was too much for Lady Kaliah as she pounded away at the inner capsule door even as she became cocooned in protective biogen agents and rising sustainer fluid. Bio-restraints formed around her body as the biogen fluids filled her mouth and nose. Slowly her heart rate decreased and her breathing became shallow before stopping altogether. She was going into bio-stasis. Powerful external restrainers unlocked and the encapsulator powered up with a rhythmic humming of increasing intensity. The launch doors were unsealed but remained closed. To conceal unusual activity the other encapsulator was activated as well. Regarding the body of the dead engineer, Tango ordered that it be taken to the incineration chute near the engines and dumped for instant disposal.

Commander Tango didn’t have to ask anyone for permission to do what he was about to do next. He ordered everyone away from the encapsulation units and into the light drive core. The Mazons soon broke through the improvised barricade of overturned load lifters, walked right past the inconspicuous encapsulators,  and approached the Amber Commandos, ready to triumph.

But Commander Tango was smiling and this made the Mazons stop in their tracks. Looking around them they realized they were inside the light conversion core and an explosion here would destroy the entire ship. Many humans were here but Lady Kaliah was not among them. The savage Mazons were perplexed for the moment. Even through the use of the Black Caster her body could not be located. How could she have just disappeared without a trace?

Mag-Apalai moved a step forward but then froze and as he looked around the chamber. One-by-one each Amber Commando was affixing magnetic charges to the converters, which although no longer supplied with photon energy were still fully charged with inter-mix Gamnon energy. The engineers equally pushed the Gamnon intermix throttles up to maximum generation. The Mazons roared in anger, but to no avail.

Lady Kaliah lay at rest in the escape capsule as Commander Tango said his last words to the arrogant Mazons, “Shall darkness prevail? In unison the trained Amber Commandos cried out, “NEVER!” The Mazons looked in shocked distress as Tango detonated the core. Krystallis went down in a brilliant light of glory, like the golden sun rising at dawn above Elysia.

Onboard Dominion, which was docked alongside the Krystallis, the force of the explosion tore away the boarding interlock assault cylinder and ripped Dominion’s hull to pieces. The semi-exposed Rekurium core started to split and as the bridge tower collapsed, Max-Tigon frantically tried to reach a life support escape pod but went up in flames with the entire bridge crew as the Rekurium reactor exploded.

In the dark night sky of a small uncharted planetoid nearby, a lone pair of eyes watched in amazement.

All that was left of both ships was a scattered debris field and one lone human survivor encapsulated in an escape pod meant to look like a piece of machinery so as not to draw attention. All life signs inside were masked from the outside. No one knew that Lady Kaliah Askana lived.

Neither the Sith, nor the Whills….