Impact (Short Story)

"Firing," Gardara said.

The words felt hollow. He didn't know what was wrong. Something didn't feel right. The ships smaller turrets fended off fighter squadrons. Every so often, one would be destroyed. Pieces would rain on them. The Gnosian ship, slow and lumbering, turned away from them, and seemed to feign a retreat.

There was no fire, even though its smaller turrets were easily in range. None of the cannon shots seemed to have any affect against. Not even enough to make it fire back.

"Keep up the fire, we've got them on the run." Kearl cheered.

His words were echoes, rolling around Gardara's mind.

On the run? How. They out gun us, they have thicker defenses, they have a swarm of fighters. He thought to himself.

He came to a sudden realization that perhaps the Gnosian ship refused to fire on them due to the fighters. Maybe they didn't want to destroy any of their own ships. Even that seemed hard to believe, however, leaving fighters with no support, to be destroyed in waves. It didn't make sense.

Another impact. The ship shock. The lights flickered but came back to life after a few moments.

"Another turret down," the radio chimed, General Ordine's voice was heavy.

Gardara sat up in his chair, his hands still gripping his turret controls. He let off another shot, stared at the meter to cool and without waiting too long, he let off another. He watched the trail of each disappear. By the look of his monitor, it seemed as though the shots simply passed through the cruiser.

"It's a decoy." He mumbled. "Stop firing, it's a decoy!" He shouted.

Realigning his shot for the top of the cruiser, he fired again. He watched as it impacted and the outline of the ship shimmered.

"Aim for the top of the cruiser, look!" He pointed at his monitor, and Kearl leaned forward to stare at his own.

"Gnosians don't have that kind of tech," Kearl said.

"They're not Gnosians." He fumbled for a comm-link and activated it. "Captain, that cruiser is a fake. It's a decoy."

"A decoy?" The captains voice was distant, as if not believing what he was hearing.

Gardara rotated his turret. Looking behind, he could see the frigate in the distance, but there was something else approaching. He released another shot at the shimmer, and upon impact it lit up. A warning sound indicated that there was a new vessel nearing their position.

"It was a distraction; as are the fighters!" He shouted.

As he finished, and before anyone could react there was a collision. The jolt was so sharp and sudden that he was knocked from his chair. He landed hard on the ground beside his control station.

A fizzing noise could be heard throughout the ship, and in an instant, all the lights went out, followed by their monitors.

An emergency broadcast activated, but the speech was garbled, as it too went dead.