1 Silent Explosions

WHUMPH!!!

A bright orange-yellow explosion silently blossomed out like a huge fireworks display.

It temporarily blinded Fourth Gear's monitors with its brilliance and shook the exoskeleton with intense pressure.

"FUCK!!!"

Vic Lander swore and gunned his navigation system, breaking ranks with the others to close in on the egg-shaped white Escort Space Pod.

He was the closest Gear to the one that had just gone up in flames and had caught the brunt of the burning shrapnel as it flew towards them.

It had only been his quick hands, automatically deploying shields that had saved them from being bombarded by the deadly shrapnel flying from the now obliterated and defunct Fifth Gear.

"Dan, Heather, Steph. Come in!" He called out.

"We're here. I can't believe Ian's gone, Vic." Heather responded, her voice shocked and cracking.

Vic swore. Of the five security detail sent to protect the Escort Space Pod, only four were left.

"Heather, to your left!" Vic screamed as he jerked on his controls in an evasive maneuver.

Five cloaked apoidean scout ships had come straight out of nowhere and were flying straight at them.

Heather never had a chance.

Within seconds, Third Gear had been vaporized.

Damn wasps!!!

"Kaitlin." Vic called out to his Striker seated immediately above him within the Command Deck.

"Wasps at five o'clock."

"Got them in my sights!" His Striker's voice came in through their intercom. From his monitors, he could see her aiming weapons at the scout ships.

"Fire at will!"

Kaitlin struck.

Her speed was legendary and it showed. In one second, one of the five apoidean scout ships had been vaporized.

The other four turned on Vic and Kaitlin, shooting their weapon beams at Fourth Gear in simultaneous bursts.

Vic yanked on the nav system, dropping his Gear down and back, evading the worst of the weapons. His quick maneuvering saved their Fourth Gear, but it exposed Second Gear to the deadly fire power.

"Dan! Watch out!" Vic screamed.

Too late! Second Gear burst into flames, its shields unable to handle all four apoidean ships firing at the same time.

The two remaining Gears rallied around the Escort Space Pod, trying desperately to keep it from getting hit.

"Vic, there's only two of us left. We can't protect the Pod. We have to evade."

"Steph. Evade!" Vic shouted and began evasive maneuvers.

The two remaining Gears abandoned their security detail of the Escort Space Pod and split away in opposite directions.

Apoideans were wasps with a hive mind mentality and worked in groups. They would never split up their four scout ships and go in two different directions. They would simply lock in on one target and attack with everything they had.

By splitting up and flying off in opposite directions, one of the Gears would make it. Of course, that also meant the other would not.

"Vic, they're going after you!" Steph called out. "Evade! Evade!"

"I am! Steph, head back to Caravan!"

"I am. Oh SHIT! I just flew towards the direction of the mother apoidean ship! Five more just appeared in front of me. I'm surrounded Vic. Ahhhhh!!!!…"

Another explosion showed up onscreen. This one was further away, but it was just as potent.

At the moment, however, Vic had no time to mourn. He was dealing with his own enemy ships.

Fourth Gear had taken some damage from the flying shrapnel of the exploded Fifth Gear and was limping along so slowly that he could not shake the apoidean scout ships.

He was also running out of power.

"Captain! There are four on my tail. I can't shake them. Captain, we're surrounded! I…"

"Vic! You're breaking up. Come in Vic! I repeat. Come in Vic Lander!"

…

"Tanner, Is there visual on Second Lieutenant Victor Lander's Black Warrior Team 2905LVCN?"

"Yes Captain." A thin male tapped on his screen and sent the feed to the main system.

Immediately, a virtual monitor popped up in front of the Captain's face.

A video feed popped onto the screen showing several apoidean scout ships scattering away from what looked like an exploded space vehicle.

"Damn it!!!" A tall thin woman in her mid-forties threw down her pointer and stood up.

"What about the other four Gears? What's going on with the Escort Space Pod?"

"They have all been obliterated, Captain." Tanner responded with the calmness his eyes did not share. He was the only one who had heard the last desperate panicked words from the ten officers who had flown the five Gears.

The Captain stood there, wordless. A few minutes later, she called for the Second and together, they locked themselves into the Captain's Conference room.

Captain Annapolis Barret slammed her hands onto the table and stared into the dark brown eyes of her First Officer.

"It should have been a routine escort through what is supposed to be tightly monitored deep space. What the hell happened, Jones???"

"Ma'am, I will look into the situation. This close to Sol-Tertian Azure, there shouldn't have been an apoidean starship."

"How did it managed to invade this close to protected space undetected?" Captain Annapolis Barret queried, not expecting an answer from her First Officer.

"We need to report this, have it analyzed and dealt with by Command Central, but that's for the post-mission briefing."

"Right now we have two choices, Jones. We can abandon our first missive and go after the apoidean mothership."

Captain Annapolis Barret's eyes were fierce with anger. "We can clear out the bugs and hope that this rogue apoidean starship is the only one in this far-flung edge of the galaxy."

She turned back to Coriander Jones. "Or we carry on with our mission of extracting Prince Alexander Vartis and Princess Cassandra Haley."

Jones inhaled deeply. "With all due respect, Captain. Our mission is not to defend this territory from the insects. The United Coalition of Starspace has their own war ships to do that work."

He leaned closer to the Captain. "We are only here to bring Prince Vartis home safely."

Captain Annapolis Barret stood gazing out of the porthole. The darkness of space was in direct contrast to the bright blue of the marble that was so close, and yet so far away.

They had lost five of their best Gear. Five gear amounted to ten second-lieutenants, all cut down in their prime of life.

"How many Gear do we have left?"

"Twenty-three-and-a-half, Captain."

"Who is the 'and-a-half', and why is there only half?" She turned back to First Officer Jones.

"According to the logs, it is Second Lieutenant Jesse Chantal, of the Black Warrior Team 5883JCAV. The team's Striker is supposed to be extracted along with Prince Vartis and Princess Haley."

Captain Annapolis Barret's eyes were hard silver stones.

"We need to bring Prince Vartis and Princess Haley safely back to the ship as soon as possible and remove ourselves from this hell-hole far-flung Earth on the bloody edge of nowhere."

"Send twenty Gear to escort the royal couple. Also send Jesse Chantal to extract the Striker. Do it now."

"Yes, Captain."