Chariot 3: Conception
Chapter 24 – …and yes, they were.

Chariot 3 rapidly emerged from the water reversing in a diagonal course.

Chariot 3 rose impetuously from the ocean and stopped right in front of the second scouter ship that had no choice, other than perform an evasive maneuver towards the sea.

Under the water, the Greys sighted the funeral pile of the craft that once was part of their squadron.

Unpleasantly surprised, the leader featured a rather raged expression, his eyes turned out even more obscure, his leaps became distorted, and his hands trembled as they put more pressure against the fitted panel.

“Nooooooooo!” His rage could not be contained.

Different than his master, the co-pilot next to him did not display the same suffocating anger, but sadness, and disappointment instead. Deep in his conscious, he knew that six of his own had just been exterminated for pursuing the innocents who had nothing to do with their cause neither had ever threatened their people.

The Grey chose to not look any longer to the vestiges of those lost in vain and preferred to focus on what awaited him back on the surface.

“Sir, the Nibirians proved to be capable of defending themselves. Should we spare their lives and perhaps avoid placing ours in risk?” With reason, the co-pilot questioned his leader.

A question that was far from reasonable to his leader. “You should be ashamed of yourself, they are outnumbered and out armed. They shall die now.”

The other two soldiers on the seats behind did not demonstrate any feelings for those who died or even bothered to look what had just occurred to the allied craft. Completing their task was all they could think of.

In the meantime, Chariot 3 tried to advise its crew of the incoming threat. “Captain, I have identified another incoming enemy craft.”

At that instant, the enemy craft emerged from the water and positioned itself face to face, against the Nibirian ship, almost touching it with its stern.

None of the crew quite understood the reason why Chariot 3 felt it was necessary to inform them what was obviously on their sight.

“Thanks for the information Sissy, but besides the fact we also saw that spacecraft almost crashing against us, we would be rather interested on how you could help us survive to this day.”

Although what Chariot 3 had said sounded quite obvious to all, they did not understand the real meaning behind her words, until the second after V-Nus spoke.

As the Martian finished his words, another scouter craft, identical to the one about to engage them, turned up on their bow. Things were far from getting better.

The stress levels of the crew started to reach a stage they probably had never been through before, at least not on that day. Ezekiel would be feeling the same, probably worse if he could see at least part of what was taking place.

Corralled with their opponents behind and in front of them, the crew did not feel there was much more that could be done other than surrender, which they knew it would not necessarily grant their survival.

“At least it cannot get worse.” Flumen tried to be positive, not the best of his talents.

His speech was followed by an even unluckier event, if that was even possible.

Another two scouter crafts emerged in a blink of an eye. The sudden stop in mid-air provoked a sharp noise as if the sky had been sliced in two. They two crafts hovered to the side and then joined the surrounding formation, positioning themselves on the port and starboard side of Chariot 3.

No words could better describe the situation other than a dead end which most likely would subsequently lead to a deadly end.

“Surrender now and you shall have a painless death.” The merciless and frightening Greynish voice resounded in their minds.”

“I thought we had already completed this mission once. What have we possibly done wrong at this time?” Losing his hopes, Flumen tried to pounder if they should fight and suffer or surrender and have a painless death, should the enemies honor their part of the deal.

Flumen never really thought one day he would actually consider choosing neither of those options. His heart beat was fast, his hands were sweating, and his mind was lost into negative thoughts, problems that for the first time he would not be able to solve on his own.

“The mission is not over yet...” Captain Shon Shoffer had now a calm and almost methodical expression on his face, carefully planning every fraction of the seconds that were about to elapse.

“V-Nus, clear your mind and prepare to fly like never before.” Shoffer continued.

“Yes sir.”

“Sissy, transfer full control of the ship to us and ensure you are synchronized with my thoughts. There is no space for mistake.”

“Captain, I am positive that I will be able to follow your thoughts and I am certain that I can help you flying the ship, but I am afraid…I already run a calculation of the probabilities of surviving an attack from four Grey scouters under the current formation and the chances are…” Sissy hesitated “…too low to be quantified.”

The frustrating silence took over the room before Sissy continued to talk. “However, I do have a recommendation.” For an instant the crew`s hope seemed to fever once again.

“Surrendering may keep you and the ship alive should the Greys decide to make any prisoners.” Although highly intelligent, being positive was far from fitting on her skill list.

“Sissy, I appreciate your concern with the ship and the crew, however I gave you a simple order and I expect you to follow it…at risk.”

“Yes Captain.” Sissy`s tone somehow sounded preoccupied as if she was truly concerned for her life.

“Captain…”

“Yes Sissy.”

“I do not want to die…”

Shoffer took a deep breath, feeling the pressure of an extra ‘life’ in his hands. He had never thought of her on that way. “No one is going to die today, not on this ship. Do as I say.” The Captain`s confidence was almost contaminating.

At the same time, Captain Shoffer and his crew were static, trying to assimilate what the ship had just said.

While Chariot 3 seemed to, somehow, be afraid of dying, Captain Shoffer tried to recover his reasoning as he could not avoid wondering the undermost possibility that the machine could possibly have “a soul”.

He then brought his pensive mind back into focus and so did V-Nus who reflected about similar thought. Cai Yiu quietly stared at them while the hands of Flumen and Ezekiel grasped their seats even tighter.

“Shall our path be safe” said V-Nus whilst nodding the head to his captain.

The time had come. Captain Shoffer finally broke the silence between ships and made contact with his enemy.

“We choose…”Shoffer paused“…painful!”

Chariot 3`s amber light started to spin at an incredible speed just before a blinding red light flashed into all possible directions.

The pilots onboard the two recently arrived crafts became sightless before they even realized it.

Chariot 3 moved forward as her lights flashed and started to rotate by lifting her left side up whilst lowering down the starboard side, creating a spinning motion.

At the same instant, the canons of the rear and forward enemy crafts did not wait to discharge the first wave of a dark purple colored light-beam.

Chariot 3`s spin and dodged both shots at once, proficiently causing the beams shock against each other.

At that instant, the light-beam discharged by the Grey leader went through the other one, splitting it into two streams which deviated ninety degrees, giving no fortune to the two other crafts whose pilots were left blind, defenseless, on both sides of the Nibirian ship.

Without any resistance, the light beams carved their way through the crafts, digging a devastating hole from forward to aft.

As Chariot 3 stopped spinning, Flumen re-opened his eyes and looked to the side, paying attention to the hole left on one of the enemy crafts.

Flumen then saw its occupants – motionless – seated in rows of two. After zooming in with his E-Lenses, a horrifying and unforgettable image was pictured forever in his mind.

His enemies were absent of half of their bodies, incinerated with an almost surgical precision. With their blood already coagulated, Flumen realized that part of their organs was exposed, still strapped to what was left of their singed seats.

At the same instant, skillfully dodged by Chariot 3, the light stream shot by the Grey leader went through the other incoming light stream without any resistance replaceing its victims along the way. His own allies – positioned at the rear of the so far fortunate Nibirians – got hit as fiercely as the other two crafts, composing an similar, if no more graphic, picture of destruction.

One after the other, the three doomed scouter crafts along with their entire crew slowly zigzagged in the air, leaving a line of dark smoke in the sky until they reached their final destination, the bottom of the ocean.