Starscape: Yes I Know It's Cheesy, I Don't Care!

A memo was posted on the virtual bulletin board in the hallway just outside the bunkers. It read, “Dangerous Mission, Twenty Volunteers Needed, Risk of Death,” And underneath there was a single line labeled captain, and nineteen other lines for soldiers. My name was on the captain spot. Quillian Poerd. That’s me.
First lieutenant of squad A, that’s my title. I got full marks on every evaluation test the government decided to get me. That’s what landed me here. Here on the S.S Starscape, a fully functioning galactic battle cruiser. The ship is gigantic, at least twenty miles long. My squad’s bunker is about halfway down the ship, next to the medical bay. The bunker is thirty-seven separate pods that soldiers sleep in. The pods are full of young, foolhardy men who think they’ve got what it takes to be in the Intergalactic War Field. Let’s hope they do.
The morning after the memo was posted, there was an announcement calling for the member of squad A who had volunteered to report to hanger C. We did so.
The briefer, an elderly man with a clipboard, told us what we were doing. There was a eRompien space craft floating ten miles past the boundary of the current treaty. We were to get in without tripping any sensors, and eliminate all crew members, without alerting eRompien forces. Not easy. The only way to get into the ship is a maneuver named, “The Hammer,” and it was risky. I asked the group, “How many here have had ‘Hammer’ training?”
Nobody raised their hand. Damn. “Everybody! To simulation chamber RF-T10! Let’s move it! When the training is over, report back here for further briefing! Go!”
As soon as they left, I took out a link on my belt, and made a call. “Hey, Mike? You got some of my squad going for “Hammer” training, give them the basics. No more then two hours. Ok, thanks,” I clicked it off.
About ninety minutes later, shaking soldiers filed back into the room. I don’t blame them. “The Hammer” is a very gut-wrenching experience, especially if it’s your first time.
So now we had to face the other problem. We couldn’t let the other eRompien forces know that we destroyed this cruiser. As soon as we broke into the ship, they would be alerted. We could use a jammer, but in a “Hammer,” there’s no way you could activate. Maybe a timer. Maybe….
It’s three hours later. The squad is sitting on two benches, talking excitedly. I sit in a corner by myself, thinking. All of a sudden, an orange light flashes. Five minutes till launch. Everybody got into regulation space/battle suits, then got in a contraption that’s called the hammer suit. Then the squad waited.
The “Hammer” is a relatively simple procedure. When you need to get people or humanoid-shaped objects onto a ship without touching the radar, you use it. It involves a person getting into a metal suit that had rockets at the back. You are launched down into the ship, and the object is to go fast enough to be in the ship before the radar sees you. The rockets fire and your body is shot downwards into the hull. Usually you go through, but I’ve been in missions where it wasn’t quite that perfect. It was messy. Anyway, back to the mission.
The light turned green. I felt a falling sensation and my stomach lurched. One of my soldiers vomited, but the suit filtered it out and cleaned it up automatically. Then the rockets fired. The G-force was insane. It felt like there were two elephants, somehow sitting on your back and stomach at the same time, pressing down on both sides. My chest contracted and I could hardly breath. The pressure was squishing me. A second later, and gray filled my vision. The gray opened, and we were through.
The hammer suits fell off, and clanged to the floor. Behind us, the hull closed up. I took a second to catch my breath, and then shouted into my mike, “Let’s go! Don’t dawdle, weapons ready!” And then a eRompian burst through the door carrying a plasma rifle. My suit saw him and fired automatically. He fell to the ground, shaking.
The squad ran through the door the alien had just come through only to come up to a crowd of hostiles. “Grenade! Get down!” I yelled, as I rolled a small concussion incendiary towards the crowd. We crumpled to the floor, and with a flash of bright light, all the eRompiens were down.
“Next room! Hurry!” The next room turned out to be the bridge. We were in way over our head. There were at least a hundred of them and they all had weapons.
“Fire!” I screamed and the battle started. It was chaos, figures flying through the air and shots dancing around the room. My men were falling quickly, and I needed a strategy. There—In the corner! A laser turret! I sprinted towards it, dodging shots. When I reached it I leaped, ripping the operator out of the console. I dived in, aimed, and started firing. I took most of them out with my scissoring laser bursts. Good thing too, all of my men were down. There were only five of the eRompiens left, but my shots couldn’t reach them, so I jumped out of the turret.
Sprinting towards them, I realized that they were hunched over a console of some sort. Easy takedowns, they had their back to me. When I was about twenty feet away, something happened. In the center of the room, a giant black portal appeared, swirling violently. A giant hand reached out, followed by an arm. After a few seconds, a gigantic creature was standing in the middle of the room. It was squat and round, with a huge mouth, that contained fangs. Its arms were bulky and thick, and they ended in claws. And its eyes, which were no more then red slits, they were looking directly at me.
The creature came at me, and I fired my plasma rifle. No affect. I tried concussion grenades, the turret, an electric band gun. No affect. The creature laughed. It was time to go old-school. I took out a switchblade knife. I made it red-hot, then electrified it with the band gun. Then I leaped at the creature. He swatted me away easily, moving unbelievably fast. I took my dart gun, and fired dart after dart into the creatures skin. None even got past the surface. Then, an idea! I took the knife, and jammed it into the gun cartridge. I fired. The knife hit the creature straight between the eyes, sinking in. The creature evaporated into green dust.
I thought the battle was over. Apparently not. The eRompiens who had brought this thing into this world were choking and gasping. The coughing got more violent, and finally, they collapsed. Then I lost my breath. Hot air filled my lungs, and was forced back out by some invisible force. The dust! I looked around frantically, and there! An air-conditioning unit. I staggered over to it and managed to click the button on it. My lungs were freed instantly. But the battle still wasn’t over.
A huge explosion rocked the ship. I ran over to the controls, and out in space, a huge, tentacled creature, that was shaking the ship up and down. And I recognized it. It was a cthullhu, or a dark god. They are devastatingly strong and can lay an entire universe to waste. And I was about to challenge it.
It wasn’t so much a battle, as much as a decision. I held the power to destroy this creature, but in the process would kill myself, and several surrounding planets. As I shot beams and missiles at the creature I contemplated the problem. And I decided.
I clamped my eyes shut, and pressed my finger down on the button. A circular bomb fired, and shot towards the god. There was a flash, like a sunburst. And then everything was gone.