Free Purge of Prometheus by Jon Messenger Page A

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    High above the assault teams sadistic tortures, a single craft dropped out of heavy accelerations and found itself entering the Orthorius Galaxy.   The ship had been pulling heavy gravities during its acceleration into the system.   Had the ship been manned, any living creature inside would have been pulverized under the weight.   But this ship wasn’t manned, which was essential for its purpose.
    The long-nosed craft, a design that would have normally harbored the flexible body of a Lithid pilot, began making minute adjustments to its trajectory.   It bypassed the gas giant, which was on the far end of its elliptical orbit around the sun.   It wove gracefully between the planet’s two moons.   Set on its purpose, the ship maneuvered only enough to avoid obstructions, but otherwise remained on a straight course.
    The two cruisers in orbit around Othus immediately detected the ship, but their continued hails were subsequently ignored.   The Dormark ’s tactical officer called over the intercom, notifying the Captain that an unidentified ship had entered the system.   The Captain, a tall and lanky Lithid wearing full military regalia, checked the reports of the craft’s activity, and then ordered the ship destroyed.
    Two rockets leapt from tubes on the starboard of the Dormark , the computer brains in each automatically adjusting the missiles’ burns toward an intercept with the unresponsive vessel.   Once far enough from the ship, both rockets began an intense burn, accelerating at speeds that no living creature could hope to outrun.
    In response, the unidentified ship began a heavy acceleration of its own.   Weaving in evasive patterns, the Lithid craft remained oriented toward its goal: the swollen sun of the Orthorius Galaxy.   The two rockets continued to accelerate, quickly gaining on the evading ship.
    “Two minutes until detonation, sir,” the tactical officer aboard the Dormark announced to the helm.
    The small vessel adjusted its trajectory once again in response to the gaining rockets, deviating from its course and entering a thin asteroid belt surrounding one of the nearby planets.   The missiles, in pursuit, entered just over a minute behind.   All three ships, all controlled by computers, maneuvered and danced through the asteroid, making millisecond corrections to speed and course that no living creature could have made.
    Halfway through the asteroid belt, the Lithid ship cut a sharp turn to the right, allowing its wing to clip a passing rock.   Spinning chaotically, the asteroid tumbled toward the oncoming rockets, bouncing haphazardly from rock to rock, creating an avalanche of stones pirouetting toward the oncoming missiles.   One of the two missiles, trapped as three asteroids tumbled toward it, was crushed under the colliding stones and detonated prematurely.   The second rocket, avoiding the debris, adjusted course and continued pursuing the ship.
    The ship launched from the asteroid belt, making constant course adjustments due to its damaged wing.   Its speed dropped as it tried to regain control of the slowly spinning craft.   Alert sirens rang throughout the ship as the second rocket darted from the asteroids as well, now only a few thousand feet behind.
    “One rocket destroyed, sir, but the second rocket has gained on the ship,” the tactical officer of the Dormark cried out excitedly in the helm.   “Detonation now in 15 seconds.”
    Ignoring its heavy spin, the craft launched itself toward the swollen sun, now dominating its frontal view screen.   Turning, the rocket accelerated into massive gravities, quickly closing the distance between the two.   The Lithid vessel pushed its engines as hard as they would burn, but with the damage to the wing it was unable to escape the deadly missile.   The ship had not yet entered the atmosphere of the sun and had only begun to feel the gravitational pull of the sun’s field when the rocket struck.