Old Enemies!

"Status report! Tell me what the fuck is going on?!"

I roared as I stormed out of my room, sat down on my chair, buckled my x-shaped safety belt, and put on my helmet the same as marines with a hose connected to the life support system installed under my chair.

"Captain! The wormhole started becoming unstable all of a sudden and according to the computer, it is going to disappear in 1 minute."

The horrified sensors officer 2nd lieutenant Yan Ning who had already her helmet on her head same as mine just without the paint job which signified that she wasn't a part of my original crew cried out as she turned back to look at me just like everyone else who knew what this meant and they were horrified of it.

I just leaned back into my chair without saying a word because there was nothing I could do since even if we turned the ship around, burned through all of our fuel reserves, and entered the unstable wormhole in time it would still tear us to pieces.

Just as I was about to give the order to call off the emergency state Yan Ning cried out once again.

"CAPTAIN! Detecting gravitational anomalies 90 degrees to our right!"

"Two... no, six anomalies. 20 000 km away!"

"The combat information center reports that the signatures match with the space spores from our database!"

"The estimated mass is over 4.5 million tons each!"

I gripped my armrest as I forcefully swallowed the line of curses that I was about to dish out from my mouth.

Fuck REAPER is only 2 million tons and those fuckers are bigger than anything the UN's navy had faced so far.

I cursed as I pressed the ship-wide intercoms button on my console.

"Attention all crew report to your battle stations immediately we are about to engage two flights of space spores this is not a drill! I repeat! Attention all crew report to your battle stations we are about to engage two flights of space spores this is not a drill!"

"Navigation turn the ship to the side, weapons forget about our shields, and everything else except the life support systems, divert all of our power to macs and lasers and give me a targeting solution and for god's sake someone turn off the alarms once everyone is in their stations!"

"Aye, sir!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Fuck why couldn't the R&D wackos make the shield work against biological and energy matter!"

I cursed because the REAPERS shield was useless against the spore's plasma bio canons and their organic drones.

...

AM if this is one of your drills again I'm gonna fucking kill you for real this time!

AM heard Lilith roar in his mind as her pissed-off holographic face inside her helmet looked at him in the corner of his view.

"It's not me I'm not joking!"

AM roared back as he ran through the ship's corridors middle with superhuman speed while the crew rank back and forth one after another to their stations on the sides of the corridors at the same speed in a disciplined and orderly manner only to hear Draculas announcement ring out through the entire ship.

"...Attention all crew report your battle stations immediately we are about to engage two flights of space spores this is not a drill!..."

Fuck!

"Fuck!"

Both AM and Lilith cursed out at the same time as they both disconnected their call and AM increased his speed to the maximum only for the ship's artificial gravity to disappear because all the available power from unessential systems to the crew's survival got diverted to the weapons causing him to start floating but luckily his right combat boots magnets turned on automatically just in time making him become glued to the floor of the corridor.

And continue running at a reduced speed because it took some effort to pry his black combat boots off from the floor thou some of the other crew weren't that lucky but all of them were veterans so they just grabbed the railings welded to the walls of the corridor and pushed themselves onto the floor and continued on running.

...

"Squad one's alpha group you're with me we're going to protect the bridge and if needed you'll go assist the bravo group who is going to reinforce the macs ammunition depot."

"Squad 2 go to the reactor room and for god's sake watch where you are shooting, I don't want to get blown up to kingdom come!"

"Squad 3 go to the hangar bay and protect the gunships at all costs otherwise we will have to crash land the ship or what's left of it after this."

"And take all the spare ammo you can carry there is never too much against those fuckers! any questions?!"

"No mam!"

All the fully geared up marines with heavy smart modular laser machineguns and smart mass accelerator sniper rifles to bolster their firepower standing next to their opened armory answered in unison at top of their lungs.

"Then what are you waiting for? Get moving you fucks and don't you fucking dare to die on me!"

"Yes, mam!"

The marines answered in unison once again even louder than before as they grabbed two large ammunition crates with already filled-up magazines which totaled up to hundreds of extra rounds except for the machine gunners.

Who had to carry the 58 kilograms heavy laser machine guns with both of their hands which was quite easy thanks to the combination of their augmentations which granted them superhuman strength and the artificial gravity currently wasn't working.

And the snipers who could only pick up one crate since one of their hands were occupied with carrying their sniper rifles and after they were done in almost emptying the armory of its ammunition they started running in single file to their designated locations.

...

"Drac what's the sit rep?"

AM asked as he stormed through the bridge's round door which automatically closed itself with the magnetic locks locking themselves preventing anyone else without high enough clearance to get inside the bridge.

Only to correct himself once he saw me staring at him without saying a word after he sat down on to his chair, buckled his safety belt, and put on his helmet.

"Sorry, Captain the jitters are getting to me you know I've never experienced combat before."

"Well, you're about to XO."

I said as with a wave of my hand I pulled up the holographic image of 6 spare spores motherships who looked like squids without any eyes almost the size of UN's battleships slowly advancing towards the REAPER with the help of their tentacles in the back that released plasma from their suckers acting as their means of propulsion which were the reason for the Earth going all into spaceship development after they were first discovered in 2027 feasting on Jupiter's gases.

And the source of the biological augmentation that became a hit back on Earth after the first DNR samples of the destroyed spores motherships were brought back though these ones clearly looked different not only they were much bigger but their outer flesh had a different color theme.

Seeing this AM could feel his lips become dry while his pores started secreting cold sweat under his uniform because unlike Drac and every other crewmember who was a veteran with dozen of engagements under their belts he didn't have any because before he could get any he got enrolled in the GENESIS initiative thanks to Dracula his best friend pulling a lot of strings.

"Don't sweat it AM my ship doesn't share my nickname for nothing plus it got upgraded to UN's newest standards before we departed although a lot of my original crew especially officers got reassigned my skeleton crew is still the same so all you have to do is to execute my orders."

I said to AM through our private communication channel as I started tapping my right hand's fingers into my armchair while my face under my helmet morphed into a fucked up grin that only an utter psycho could have.

Fuck because of the goddamn GENESIS initiative I've been grounded for whole fucking 7 years because of all the augmentations and training! It's been so fucking long since I killed anything! Fuck I can't wait for the battle to start!

I thought excitedly in my mind only for Yan Ning to report again.

"Captain the six contacts will be within effective ultra-heavy gauss canons range ETA 3 mins."

"Good, what about those targeting solutions?"

"Already done Captain sending over the firing solutions now."

Senior lieutenant Harmand Warner reported as he swiped one of his glass see-through holographic 3D monitors making the firing solutions appear on my holographic monitor.

"Enemy motherships designated as Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, and Foxtrot! The guns are primed and ready! Waiting for orders to shoot sir!"

Harmand who was part of the original crew and was also missing a few marvels in his head like Dracula said excitedly as it took all he had in him to not start shooting without orders while he stared at his monitor with his eyes wide open to the point it looked like they were going to pop out from their sockets at any moment.