Kismet

It takes more than an hour for Isis to cover the ground from the Breeding Space to the fifty metre corridor that links directly to the generator room, which is her goal.

Perish bodies are piled up everywhere and Isis has gone through hundreds of rounds of ammunition, as well as five different Perish weapons.

“Sixteen Perish remaining.” Ross advises as Isis rises back to her feet. The last round of battle had been the hardest yet as The Perish had literally thrown themselves at her using melee weapons to attempt to crush her bones to dust. They failed but only just.

Isis having suffered dozens of bone fractures and deep wounds is pleased she has Ross at her side and that her armour is overclocked to keep her in battle condition as much as possible. She had even asked how the armour is faring and the response the AI gave was that it was somehow not only faring well but actually improving its own capabilities. That had sounded impossible to Isis but she thought better than to question her good fortune. Though, she did have to admit that she could feel the armour dealing with her wounds in a much swifter fashion than before.

Isis throws the empty Perish weapon in her hands at the closest Perish. The heavy structural beam sized weapon spins end over end until the muzzle slams into and deforms the head of The Perish. The hulking alien dies immediately as thick blue blood spew from the wounds of the shattered face.

Isis pays no attention however as she drops from her sprint into a slide that sends her rocketing across the decking of the corridor at what should be unobtainable speeds. Isis pays no attention to what should or shouldn’t be possible as she collects one of the burst rifles and then quickly shoulders it. As she does however a Perish leaps out from behind a support. Isis curses as The Perish grabs the barrel and wrenches it toward her with a huge blade in a flank trio of arms.

Before the blade can be brought down on Isis though, she lets loose with the burst rifle. Burst after burst fires into the gut of The Perish sending plumes of blue mist into the air around her. The alien then staggers backward out of view never to return.

Isis has to roll to avoid the fresh wall of incoming projectiles fired her way. Some of them hit and she momentarily feels the bite of the bladed objects before Ross goes to work repairing her body.

Isis, angry and tired, wildly fires the remainder of the burst rifles ammunition, taking seven more of The Perish down, and then she hurls the weapon at another pair. The impact of the burst rifle doesn’t kill them but it does give her long enough to pull her Loquacious Peace and quickly fire off three rapid un-aimed shots. Two of the bullets hit and then explode into shrapnel that tears out the midriffs of their targets from the inside. The third bullet however goes wide of its target and ricochets off the bulkhead before exploding and tearing half of The Perish’s face clean off, exposing the grey bones of its skull below. The damage is enough to still fell the alien who collapses with his brethren to the floor a short time after them.

“Four left Isis.” Ross advises but Isis wishes that he hadn’t. She isn’t about to say that but still it’s the thought that flashes through her mind in the seconds prior to her throwing her sniper rifle back onto her back and then pulling her Heaven’s Wake heavy pistol.

The four Perish fall upon her all at once, almost successful in their attempts to crush her beneath their much larger bodies as their fists hammer at her armoured body from all angles.

The armoured woman feels like she is being hit across every inch of her body and as there are twenty of the twenty four fists slamming into her, that is entirely possible. The remaining fists hold her in place in an attempt to stop her wriggling free. Isis has no intention of wriggling anywhere as she instead jams the barrel of her pistol into one of The Perish and fires a double shot. The alien roars a pained cry and then staggers back gripping at an area just above its groin but that isn’t quite its stomach. Blood is spilling out of the double wounds and its cries draw the attention of two of the other Perish. That break of focus gives Isis just enough time to sweep her leg and fell the fourth Perish that is still hammering her body with its fists. The alien lets out a shriek of surprise that shocks Isis, though she still fires a single round into its head, killing it instantly.

The ringing sound of the death shot draws the attention of the uninjured pair of aliens too late. Isis rolls away, free of anymore pummelling fists. However, her body is too battered for her to be able to stand yet so instead she spins her body and then fires the rest of the cylinder’s bullets wildly roaring in defiance as she does.

Her rage fuelled fired shots hit their marks and  shred the pair of uninjured Perish that sag and then sink to the blood soaked deck plating of the corridor, which is sealed behind Isis to stop anymore Perish from rallying against her and mounting a rear assault.

She can still hear them beating at the heavy metal doors back the way she came and wonders again if they might be able to pound their way through. Ross has already assured her that they will not but still she can’t help but wonder nonetheless.

The double shot Perish suddenly staggers back toward Isis and then flops onto her. The weight of its body is painful but she manages to stop herself from screaming angrily for it to get off of her in the moments before it pins her left hand, and the Heaven’s Wake in it, to the sticky decking. Moments later The Perish begins to batter her ribs down the right flank, as well as her left hip.

Isis can feel herself slipping out of consciousness but refuses to admit defeat as Ross thunders, “You need to break free Isis, now!”

Unfortunately, Isis can’t focus her eyes. The relentless staggered punches to her bones are messing with her vision just enough to throw her off. And she certainly can’t rely on either of her guns right now as she tries to return the pounding her body is taking with a few of her own, dealt by her right hand. But if The Perish notices her own jabs it shows no sign of it as her eyes begin to grow heavy causing Ross to roar, “You are becoming critical!”

Isis at that moment does the only thing she can think to do and lets her head drop back to bang softly against the deck plating below her. Debris on the deck digs painfully into her back making her want to throw her body forward and off of them. But she doesn’t and her sudden seeming limpness draws the attention of The Perish who pauses. A look, that Isis thinks is confusion, sits on the aliens face, and then she throws her head forward with all her might. Her neck cracks from the force of the whipping action that sees her helmet crush the face of The Perish who bellows in response to the savage and unexpected attack. Four of its arms shoot up to cover and nurse its face as the final two try and slam with their combined force into her gut. However, Isis is quicker and manages to spin the Heaven’s Wake and then bash the grip of the weapon into the right temple of the alien who topples off of her and slams to the deck plate. The Perish isn’t dead but it is struggling to regain its focus and that is when Isis takes her chance and pulls herself atop the alien so she is straddling its chest. She returns the pistol to its holster and then pulling the rifle off her back quickly brings the butt of the sniper down as hard as she can on the monsters face.

The Perish tried to shield its face and stop her but the aliens movements were too slow and the butt of the sniper slammed into the Perish’s face, crushing it with a wet sickening thud that sees large globules of blue blood spray up and into the air. Isis doesn’t stop after one hit though as she quickly raises the weapon and then does it a second, a third and then a fourth time.

In fact, the only reason she doesn’t deliver more crushing blows is because her arms are tired and refuse to lift the weight of the Loquacious Peace. It is at this point that she hears her own panting strained breathes and hangs her head.

Her vision is filled with the sight of the face that doesn’t look like a face anymore. The woman feels that the sight should make her feel sick but it doesn’t. She doesn’t understand why but manages to struggle and half fall off the top of the dead Perish and then crawl walk using the Loquacious Peace to brace herself until she reaches the closed door beyond which lies the generators for this platform, apparently. It’s the first time she has doubted that her goal might actually lay beyond the door and that The Perish map may be inaccurate and that concerns her greatly.

Isis knows that she should feel relief and accomplishment at the achievement, but she doesn’t. All she feels is exhaustion. She doesn’t even feel pain from her wounds and decides now that without the feeling adrenaline seems to have little effect on her body. She hopes Ross will have her patched up soon, though he does cycle open the large circular metal door to reveal the massive space beyond which belches humid air into her face. She can’t feel the heat on her skin but she does feel the change in atmospherics as her armour adjusts to combat the change in climate and keep her body within regulated limits.

Suddenly Isis crumples off her rifle crutch and slams hard to the solid floor. It isn’t deck plating anymore and beyond the nine metre wide circle there is a two hundred metre drop. Isis hasn’t seen the drop yet as she struggles and hears Ross utter, “Just hold on. I’m going to overclock again. This might hurt but you need it. You took a real beating…” The AI’s voice seems to fade out and Isis can’t be sure if there were more words spoken or not.

“Arghhhhhhh!” Isis screams as she feels all the pain hit her body at once. The feelings are unbearable and if this is what she should have been feeling this entire time she hopes that death comes soon. Then the pain is gone and Isis feels a sudden burst of life. Nothing hurts or even fails to obey her command as she leaps off her back and onto her feet in a single smooth motion.

She can barely believe it but checks herself over nonetheless. She hasn’t got a clue what she is searching for and unsurprisingly finds nothing of whatever it was that she was trying to locate.

“What did you do?” Isis asks finally as she reclaims her rifle and reloads the weapon. She doesn’t have a huge amount of ammunition for her Loquacious Peace or Heaven’s Wake. She just hopes she has enough.

“I found a subroutine dubbed experimental and activated it.” Ross admits frankly.

“Did you know what it would do before you turned it on?” Isis queries curious but fearful of what the answer might be.

“Kind of.” Ross remarks honestly before adding, “But it worked didn’t it?”

“You’ll be the death of me Ross.” Isis retorts with a smirk as she pulls and reloads the Heaven’s Wake while spinning on the spot to take in the grandeur of the generator room.

The generator room is enormous and Isis can’t decide on any of its dimensions other than to say that they are unparalleled. What she can comprehend however, is the huge drop from the edge of the platform she is on. This platform is in turn linked via two metre wide floating pathways of black alloy that snake around the room to the suspended spheres that she assumes must be the generators. If they aren’t then she has no idea where the generators are as the spheres of silver that are pulsing, glowing and arcing with purple energy are the only things of note in this room. Though, she does have to admit she feels relief to not see a single Perish in sight.

“No, I think you’ll be the death of you.” Ross fires back with a humoured tone of voice that gives Isis a great deal of comfort to hear while inside this mammoth alien structure.

“So what’s the plan?” Isis questions.

“Start shooting.” Ross replies succinctly.

“Not much of a plan. But you don’t have to tell me twice.” Isis murmurs as she raises her Heaven’s Wake and fires all twelve rounds into the closest generator.

The impact of each round is answered with a higher and higher pitched whine, until finally the generator explodes into a fountain of sparks and arcing energy. The sparks and arcs leap about the immediate vicinity for literal seconds before the mass turns dark once and for all.

Isis reloads her weapon and then immediately stows it. She is very short on ammo and instead swaps to her Loquacious Peace while remarking, “That wasn’t so bad.”

“Still five to go.” Ross reminds.

Isis shoulders her rifle and aims for the furthest generator. Her scope links with her HUD almost immediately. However, Isis notices this generator seems different as the energy is darker and grainier in colour. She puts it down to the distance she is from it and the tint to her scope, or perhaps her visor, as she fires. The bullet quickly zips across the cavernous space before punching a hole in the generator. A blink of an eye later a muffled detonation can be heard. Somehow the generator is still spinning though, so Isis fires the last two rounds in the magazine in quick succession.

Both rounds hit entirely different sections of the spinning sphere, even though they are fired in quick succession. But the detonations are almost simultaneous and result in a cascade of sparks that shower outward in a pattern reminiscent of how magnets repel iron filings. Then the sparks turn to flames before suddenly collapsing inward and then exploding into a column of shrapnel that seems to defy even the artificial gravity of this orbital platform.

Unfortunately, with the failing of the second generator the locks on the doors, that Ross had been in control of, fail. With the locks released, the doors cycle open. It is all part of an emergency repair response.

Isis spins on her heels toward the doorway that she entered through. As far as she knows it is the only way in and out of the place. She can’t be sure because of the scale of the room but still her response is, “Oh fuck.”

She says it with a healthy dose of venom and irritation in her voice, while Perish can be heard rumbling toward her with a cacophonous combined roar.

“We need a new plan Ross.” Isis shouts as she drops to one knee and prepares to open fire as soon as the rumbling noise becomes the forms of Perish in her sight line for her to shoot.

She has no idea how many Perish might be racing toward her but by the enormous din they are creating her guess would be a lot more than she can handle. Perhaps thousands of the big aliens in total are baying for her blood. That would make sense seeing as this is a massive orbital platform and in that Breeding Space alone there had been hundreds of growth acceleration tanks.

“We can try integration again.” Ross offers sounding less confident than Isis would like.

“You don’t sound sure. Do you really want me to do that?” Isis questions as she steadies her breathing.

“What other option do we have?” The AI responds with an even tone.

“Where’s the insert?” Isis asks hesitantly. She doesn’t like this idea but she can’t argue with Ross’ logic as the mass of Perish barrel into view.

Isis fires once. The bullet claims six of The Perish before exploding and shredding two more. But the armoured woman doesn’t stop there and quickly fires the second round and then after readjusting her aim and angle fires the third round. The second bullet claims four Perish while the third, having ricocheted claims nine before exploding. The explosion of shrapnel shards however claims no more lives, though it does slow one Perish who begins limping as a result.

Isis quickly reloads the Loquacious Peace and finishes just as The Perish themselves open fire on her. She rolls left a little too far and nearly loses her footing and slips off the platform to her death. She curses herself for failing to take note of her surroundings properly. The fall would be her death, she knows that for a fact. Even Ross and her armour wouldn’t be able to save her from that, but she quickly pushes the thoughts aside and fires all three rounds in quick succession. However, before she can move she is hit in the right shoulder by a javelin shaped projectile that elicits a pained wince in response before she launches herself up into the air a good metre. The leap gives her the time she needs to frantically reload.

Isis only has two magazines left for her sniper but her shoulder is barely responsive and she needs to get the metal spear out of it first. So she quickly throws the rifle onto her back and grabs her heavy pistol.

Then Isis lands and just as Ross advises, “It’s on that bulkhead just behind the advancing Perish.”

Ross even highlights the insert capable of taking his chip as he says it.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Isis says as she lands, rolls and then opens fire.

“There has got to be fifty Perish between it and me.” The woman then mutters hoping that Ross won’t give her an exact count. He doesn’t and she’s relieved not to hear how bad her situation is as she accelerates into a full run, firing carefully. She knows she doesn’t have the rounds to go in like she would like to, and now wishes she hadn’t fired some of her ammunition off as carelessly as she had when she’d been in the corridor joined to this room. There is nothing she can do about that now and she knows it as she grabs a hold of the short javelin, about fifteen centimetres long, with her right hand and yanks it hard enough for the bolt to slide free. Isis lets out a cry as she removes the projectile, but as soon as she has she feels her body beginning to repair, and even manages to fling the bolt back at The Perish.

Her ability to toss the projectile back at her enemies surprises Isis as does the fact that the bolt plunges deep into the thigh of one of the aliens who topples over clutching at its leg. The alien doesn’t last long however, as the rest of The Perish stampede right over him. Isis is disgusted by the sight but quickly reloads her Heaven’s Wake and then drops into a slide to dodge a volley of projectiles. She doesn’t complete the slide though as she has to dive right to stop herself from being shredded by a second delayed volley that would have torn into her chest.

Again a few of the projectiles hit their mark. Luckily these do nothing but clatter off her armour. Isis is surprised, but surmises that the projectiles might be firing beyond what their effective range is. Isis smiles and holsters her pistol and then pulls her Loquacious Peace before readying and firing. As soon as the three rounds are let loose she slaps in a fresh magazine, the last, and fires all three of these too. The rifle clicks empty. Isis had been expecting it but still wishes it wasn’t. Though, at least the rounds do their job and clear a pathway, albeit a narrow one, through The Perish horde.

Isis wastes no time and launches herself forward toward the gap, which is closing fast.

“Hang on this is going to be tight.” The woman roars as she throws herself into a forward dive, her body taking on the appearance of an arrow as her arms are stretched above her head.

“I can’t hang on I’m an AI!” Ross calls back worried during the moments before Isis slips through the gap in The Perish and then curls into a roll, that lasts for three revolutions, but that ultimately see the armoured figure land back on her feet.

She pulls her heavy pistol with her left hand as she slides the chip from the base of her helmet with her right and then inserts it into the thin gap.

Immediately Ross can feel the massive expanse of the installation as well as the overwhelming presence of its system administrator that isn’t quite an AI.

Ross however, throws everything he has at the system governance in hopes of keeping it occupied. Meanwhile the main bulk of himself works at worming his way through the system. The administrator that isn’t an AI fights back by deploying an array of sophisticated programs to slow and block Ross’ routes. Still, the AI manages to bypass its attempts by using a number of routes separate from the system administrator program that for some reason it has no access to. Ross doesn’t understand their presence but exploits them nonetheless by unleashing a myriad of corruption bugs that multiply tenfold every eighth of a second, overwhelming and finally corrupting the system program to such an extent that it fails and withdraws like a wounded animal. It promises to exact its revenge but Ross quickly sends seekers to track it back to its origin, which isn’t far away and not as inaccessible as the program would like to believe. Ross throws an assortment of battle routines and virus drone programs that quickly cut off the system programs routes of possible escape, literally forcing it into a confrontation with the drone programs that shred it piece by piece. It takes far longer than Ross would like but once it is over the system administrator similar to an AI is gone. There is nothing left of it but a few lines of code and that means Ross has absolute access. However, he cares little about the state of the platform and simply forces the generators into a mass overdrive, once the safeties have been removed and the tolerances have been massively inflated way beyond what any structural construction is able to tolerate that is.

And then he focuses on Isis. He is out of her armour and unable to aid her in her desperate battle against The Perish until he is returned to the slot in her helmet. He can feel his code has been battered and that pieces of him are missing and corrupted, but he just has to hang on. He couldn’t tell her that in him being inserted into the system that he would immediately start to degrade because of the differences in time passage ticks, that are increasingly tearing at his being. If he had done that then everything they had achieved up to this point would have been for nothing and he wasn’t about to be the weakest link in their pair bond.

Isis staggers backward narrowly avoiding being flung over the edge and to her death. Her body is struggling and this next wave of Perish is somehow stronger than the last. Worst of all she can see an even bigger, more than three metres tall, Perish heading right for her. Each of its mighty fists is clasping a different weapon, but she refuses to give up her fight. The armour clad woman has to hold them off until Ross has ruined the generators. She just hopes she can as she sidesteps a swipe that sees The Perish launch itself over the edge and to its doom. Isis pays no mind to its screams and roars that if she were listening to she would guess were cries for a salvation that will not be coming.

Isis fires wildly into a gaggle of Perish who all fall down dead in response. Then the woman spins and clubs another Perish who had been hoping to hit her from behind. However, another manages just that and slams her to the bulkhead where Ross is inserted. She sees the orange light telling her that the AI is ready and she reaches. Right at that moment another Perish slams something into her right hand, crushing it. Isis lets out of howl of pain and on instinct brings up her knee which catches The Perish wrong and forces it off her so she can deliver a triple shot of her heavy pistol. Each round moves higher and higher up the taller beasts’ torso before she delivers a kick that thwarts another quartet from collapsing upon her. Isis takes that opportunity to slam the barrel of her pistol into the second Perish and then fire once. The bullet explodes through one side and then the other of its temple, sending a shower of blue blood outward, while the bullet is left to ricochet off the bulkhead killing another Perish.

With her ruined hand Isis somehow manages to pull the chip with Ross on free and slip it back into the base of her helmet.

“Is it done?” Isis asks hopeful.

“Just give the word.” Ross assures her as he goes to work using the systems of her armour to repair and reform the bones in her hand. It won’t take long but any further damage will set the recovery time of two minutes back. He hopes she understands that, though he isn’t about to tell her. She has bigger issues to worry about as he realises the massive Perish is right on top of her.

Isis isn’t aware of just how close The Perish, Inocos, is and Ross realising too late cries, “Isis, look out!”

But Inocos slams the flat edge of a club like weapon in one of its upper arms into Isis’ head. She drops to the floor. Then before she can move the armoured woman is stabbed through her left thigh and right flank pinning her to the floor. Isis screams but manages to kick with her right leg at the massive knee of Inocos who staggers three paces back in response.

Isis uses the opening to wrench the blade from her right flank. It tore her side openly painfully when she unleashed the kick. Before she can cut at the blade in her left thigh Inocos is on her again. He hauls her off the platform that she had been pinned to and up into the air. Isis realises he plans to throw her off the edge of the platform but manages to shift her weight round enough and fire a double shot into the massive Perish’s neck. Inocos roars angrily and throws Isis. His throw is short and Isis manages to scramble away, though the blade is still skewered through her leg. She hasn’t had chance to remove it, while the other Perish chant Inocos. She is surprised she understands their chants but concludes that what they are chanting must be this giant, who is barrelling toward her in thick more substantial armour, aliens’ name.

Isis throws herself into a spin kick, but does so too late. Ross wonders if she has lost her timing but Isis has done it on purpose and the kick though incomplete sees the blade skewered through her thigh plunge into Inocos’ own leg. The beast howls and then wrenches the blade free of both himself and Isis. His action tears the wound painfully and sees Isis crash to the floor. But the armoured woman manages to spin away before a mighty foot comes crushing down on her. The mighty foot emits a deep booming sound upon impact, while Isis launches herself at Inocos firing savagely at his helmet covered head.

Many of the rounds ricochet off, but one hits his second eye on one side, while another cuts through a hose of his breathing mask. Inocos, angered, rips the mask off his face to expose four rows of razor sharp teeth that runs around the top, bottom and sides of the aliens’ mouth, except for the very centre. That central section, both top and bottom, is devoid of teeth and by looks of things if where the wide hose that he has just pulled from his mouth, with the removal of his breathing mask, sits normally.

Isis snarls and barks, “Kill those generators Ross.”

Ross complies and fires the overload kill procedure that will send the remaining four generators into oblivion. The generators immediately begin to spark and that gives Isis the opportunity she needs to throw herself forward. She leads with her barely usable right fist, while Inocos slashes and swipes at her with its four remaining blades and clubs.

Somehow Isis manages to spin her body in mid-air and corkscrew past all the swipes. Inocos can barely believe it and its six and half remaining sight filled eyes seem to widen in shock just before Isis suddenly pulls her right arm back to reveal her left still gripping the Heaven’s Wake pistol. Inocos tries to retreat away from the attack but it’s too late and Isis fires. The heavy pistol kicks wildly but the rounds find their target and boom angrily at the aliens massive chest plate. The force knocks the alien back, though somehow Inocos manages to grab hold of Isis and haul him toward her. It was a lucky instinctive grab that allows The Perish brute to then spin and finally body slam her into the platform. Isis screams, “Fuck!” and she partially loses her grip on the heavy pistol in her left hand.

Inocos brings her head back and opens his mighty jaws ready to rip out a chunk of her helmet, but Isis manages to scramble and at the very last second lift her Heaven’s Wake only for the generators to explode into plumes and fountains of energy, fire and sparks. The arcs launch themselves across the room to vaporise Perish unlucky enough to be in the danger zones that they had no way of knowing were present.

Isis however ignores the carnage and devastation as she shoves the barrel of her pistol into the section of Inocos’ mouth where there are no teeth and lets loose. The weapon thunders loudly, but its booms are drowned out by the detonations and self-cannibalisations of the generators as the die.

Inocos somehow still manages to pull away, but only partially. The first couple rounds rip through the roof of his mouth sending sprays of blue high into the air, but the last of the bullets miss entirely.

Then in response to the attack Inocos crushes Isis’ legs and right shoulder. He would have crushed her left arm too if not for the fact that the arms down his own left side are limp and useless because of the shots that tore through the roof of his mouth. The bullets while not fatal did cause enough damage to terminate an entire side of the mammoth aliens’ appendages.

Isis screams in response to the damage caused to her own body, but manages to throw Inocos off her, quickly reload and then drive the grip of her Heaven’s Wake into the undamaged grouping of four eyes. The impact of the bludgeoning grip pops three of the four eyeballs. The resulting sound is disgusting as they explode. But the woman’s attack has the desired effect seeing as Inocos roars allowing Isis to drive the barrel of her pistol deep into the aliens’ mouth and then unload all twelve rounds. Inocos has no way of avoiding any of the bullets this time which shred the back of his throat. The alien gurgles but somehow still manages to live, barely.

Then an almighty explosion throws Isis clear of Inocos’ body moments before the section of platform, with the heavily wounded but somehow still alive alien on, disappears from view. Isis thanks her lucky stars as she rolls over and tries to move. She can’t. Her legs refuse to obey and she lifts her head just enough to find both are crushed and bent wrong.

“Well, that’s done.” Isis announces to no one.

“Orbital platform will go critical in one minute. We need to move.” Ross says trying to keep Isis motivated.

“Not happening. Not with the wounds I’ve got.” Isis assures and Ross knows she is right. He had just hoped to keep her from admitting defeat.

“It was good working with you Isis.” Ross adds after a silence has hung in the air between them.

“Ditto Ross.” Isis replies as she lets her head fall back to rest against the two thirds of the platform that still remain. The Perish that were cheering Inocos on are gone. They are trying desperately to flee but don’t seem to realise that they are already doomed.

Then the chain-reaction starts. The massive failure of the generators of the orbital platform causes overheating in the weapon firing systems as more of the suns energy is still being siphoned, but without a housing for the energy, which was the generators, the energy levels reach to higher volumes.

Isis is consumed in the fireball of superheated energy that follows and then seconds later that energy ripples and roars across every section of the platform until it is consumed and then detonates one final time.

This final explosion results in the debris, that had once been the platform but that is now all that remains of it, being flung out in every direction. A fifth of the scraps and shards hurtle toward the atmosphere below. Upon contact with and passage through the atmosphere on the planet they erupt into streaks of orange, red, blue and green fire.

Among the falling debris is Isis’ armour. It’s enveloped entirely in orange flames as it plummets rapidly back toward the ground.

Minutes later the scorched mass slams full force into the surface of the planet creating a nearly four metre wide crater that is also fifteen metres deep.