Pursuit of oblivion

I haven't posted for a long time, so all i ask is be honest in your criticism's

When love, peace, and joy have been ripped from the human heart, only black vengeance can fill the void. Diana Skyes was this and edified a life lived hard. Her fierce grey eyes were haloed by wrinkles well beyond her years, her hair streaked a pallid grey yet her figure was firm, a result of years of hard toil. She wore the pristine, military-black, Long-patrol uniform and the humble ranks of mission commander. Her only decoration was a small locket attached to the same chain of the stamped steel dog tags.
In her left hand, she gingerly rolled the simple tarnished ring of her long dead fiancée, yet her eyes never left the broad field of stars just past the Twilight’s gate thick glass. In the days of sails and ships, she would have been captain, the Twilight’s gate her warship, and the crew loyal beyond reason, but that age like the long abandoned Earth was forever gone.
Her second, a lanky man just past thirty drifted into the cramped command pit and sat next to her, he turned and addressed her. “Ma’am, we have detected a wreck a third parsec, three points off the starboard sail.”
“Time is not a resource, I can waste, Orion Houston, on picking up wretched survivors, notify the planetary guard and let’s be on our way.” She lectured him.
“Ma’am you don’t need to worry, there doesn’t look like there are any, Standard operating procedures dictate that the M.C. be informed especially since the derelict was attacked.” He droned on as he nonchalantly gazed over the instrument panels.
Diana mind drifted towards her second. There was nothing extraordinary about this man. His name, no doubt, had been taken from the constellation in the northern skies. His last was from the Exodus Clipper that brought his ancestors here. None, of this generation were as tough, as resilient as the Earth born. Those people dared to jump into the infinite to dig out new lives and civilizations. She only briefly realized she was one of the last of that age. Suddenly she snapped back on one word. “Hold on, the vessel was attacked? We are on the galactic edge of the Solaris Empire, there’s nothing out ”
Orion pressed his minute ear piece tighter, and then spoke grimly. “Ma’am, the telescope has found the assailant, it’s a massive craft, and we’re still trying to clarify the picture.”
A flame seemed to ignite in Diana’s chest, a flash fire of horrid memories roared through her. Only one monster lurked this far out. It had preyed on the innocent for nearly forty years and it had torn through her soul. For the first time in fifteen years, the Oblivion was near.
“Captain Houston, patch me through the intercom and set the sails to the sun, I want maximum velocity on that thing!” She almost yelled as her voice starting to boil with excitement. The computer gently beeped and she screamed into the receiver. “General Quarters, General Quarters, man your battle stations!” Within seconds, crimson sirens wailed against the hull and the thump of feet on steel reverberated through the cabin. The Star caster Twilight’s Gate was edging for a fight.
Only, Orion seemed reserved. He had yet to vector the war craft into pursuit. “Ma’am, I’ll radio command and give them our situation.” He answered matter-of-factly.
“No!” Diana shrieked as rage boiled over. It took her precious seconds to swallow it. “It’ll take too long we must give chase to that monster, now!”
Houston once again pressed his ear piece in, “The Telescope crew confirms; it’s a Waste hunter-raider.”
“I know damn well what that thing is, I want it destroyed, and I want it to die.” She scowled at him; while she began to squeeze the ring in her hand so tightly that either her flesh or the cheap gold would soon give out.
The Second chuckled wickedly. “Sky Colonel, if you know `damn well’ what that thing is, then you know that the Waste are machines, born on Earth. They are heartless, efficient and above all else deadly. We are no match for them. A fleet would be no match for them! I’ll radio command, and get as much back up as possible, it is protocol!”
“Don’t, don’t lecture me you pathetic off worlder. I know what the Waste are! I was there when they drove humanity off that miserable rock! I was there when the Waste killed Isaiah.” She sank in to her chair and meekly pointed in the other vessel’s direction. “I wasn’t there when that one out there, killed my son.”
“Ma’am I can’t possibly understand, what you’ve gone through but you cannot let your emotions cloud out your judgment. What of your ship, your crew.” He answered as professionally as possible.
“What about them?” She shot back coldly. “Get me to that star craft, that’s an order, Captain.”
There is a point where reason gives way to even the weakest argument. Orion had just passed it. He felt as if a torrent had overwhelmed him. Perhaps, he lacked the will, but he did not lack the dignity. He thrust himself away from the pilot’s seat. “O captain, my captain, your ship, your prey, your death. I don’t want any part of this madness.”
Diana let the crumpled ring go and slid into the right chair. With age-old expertise her hands flew over the switches and touch screens, before finally coming to a rest on the double yokes. The Twilight’s Gate responded nimbly to her command and the gossamers sails filled with starlight, before the vessel took off towards the opponent.
In space, where any glimmer of light could be seen with the right telescope, black was the color of combat. The Star caster sheen seemed to only reflect its commander’s hate. In mere minutes, it pulled closer and closer to the Oblivion. Every crew member stood nervous yet vigilant at their station. News had spread slowly that their prey was the infamous black murderer. That fact alone sapped their strength.
Every second brought the two combatants closer, every instant ticked away before the fierce fight. Diana’s eyes locked coldly on the black dot racing against the stars. There was a time when nothing could catch a Waste dreadnaught; years of research had evaporated that, but not the Waste’s deadly capabilities.
Even a machine knows when it cannot escape and like all living things it would fight when cornered. The demon like creation began a long slow turn, an arc towards its hunter. For just a brief moment, doubt seized Diana. The girl who had once run countless miles on Venice beach was screaming inside of her. Too many lives hung on her insatiable desire for revenge. That young innocent tore at her conscious, begging only for her to just rethink her actions. “Too late.” Diana whispered softly and once again she buried her lost innocence deep in the sands of her mind.
The machine was merely thousands of miles away and fast closing that distance. There was no more time to run, she had locked her Star Caster’s fate and only the precise pre-planned path could lead them from the hungry grasp of Oblivion. She gently flicked on the intercom and sighed softly into the microphone. The sound carried throughout the aluminum hull. She could only give words to her crew now; just worthless noise to bolster men’s hope in the face of destruction.
“My brave and gallant crew, I ask you to listen to my voice and forgive me for my pettiness. I ask you now for what any tyrant would want. I ask you to lay down your lives for my own ambition and needs. By every law, I should be stripped of command for deliberately putting you and this fine ship in harms way. Yet this I must ask you, there are few among us who have not suffered from the Waste. Your forefathers still cry out from the where they were buried by the machine horde. This day, countless lives have been lost to that machine just outside our armor. We owe it to our children; for if we do not stop it, who will? I once more remind you the Long Patrol motto that drives our every action.” She paused for the pre practiced amount. Then spoke firmly before flicking the device off. “So that others may live!”
At first it was only a gently throb; then the steel carried the sound to a roar. The crew was actually clapping for her. Her plan had worked and now they would march straight through hell’s fire for her. A malicious grin spread across her face and she switched the communications on once again. “Ready the Twilight’s Gate for battle. Let’s bring down that murderer!”
No fanciful description of war can overshadow the cold hard truth. It is as terrible in the subterranean trench as it is in the heavenly stars. The two warmongers raced head long at each other; each bared its technological teeth. The Twilight’s Gate ran out its armaments, the direct descendant’s of the howitzer and cannons. The crew readied the charges, just seconds too late. Fierce blood red lasers lacerated the black hull, wrecking flesh and steel. Explosives tore through airtight compartments bleeding the craft’s precious atmosphere into space. The battle would have been ended just as quickly as it started, except for the decisive actions of its mission commander. She threw the javelin- like vessel into a vicious turn. The battered craft screaming in protest and in a flashing instant, the two vessels were locked side by side, racing towards their fate.
“Have at them and tear it apart!” Diana screamed into the microphone, her moment had finally come. The terrifying long guns sang out destruction in sweeping broadside. Diana rotated her weapon in a lazy roll, giving each gun a chance. At over a kilometer apart, the warriors were locked at point blank range. All weapons found their mark and rang carnage truly on the vessel. Each explosive shell did not go unanswered and unpunished though. The Oblivion replied with all due devastation and for seventy six agonizing seconds. Humanity and machine bleed alike as they crumpled one another into dust.
The Twilight’s Gate despite all perseverance and struggle began to lose the trial and shattered under the onslaught. The fact alone was far more then Skyes would take. She threw the craft into another turn, this time, with the needle like tip aimed towards the Oblivion’s heart. Only seconds and miles separated the two, before in one steel on crashing steel second, the comet crushing bow dug deeply into the Oblivion. For an almost eternal moment, the two warriors hung together, each just above their breaking point and both mortally wounded.
Minutes passed before the second returned to his station. Blood drifted away in spherical globs from a gash in his forehead. Orion rushed into the now chaotic command pit, expecting to find the Colonel wounded or better yet, dead. All around him, the vessel screamed in dying gasp as girders and support beams slowly gave out. To his chagrin, he locked eyes on Diana. She stood half dressed in a space suit. “An eye for an eye, eh ma’am, just you haven’t traded one of your eyes but hundreds of your crew’s, and now you are just going to float away!” He seethed.
“No, captain I am not.” She answered coolly as she strapped an ebony white glove over her left hand.
“Ma’am, your pettiness knows no bounds, how many have died, how many will and you are just going to walk away! I can’t forgive myself for caving in to you!” He screamed before thinking.
“Orion,” she gazed back at him. This time though, her hard grey eyes wilted into trepidation and unease. “Even a monster has a heart. Yes, I am leaving, but not to abandon ship, but to relinquish command to you.”
Houston looked around, at the shattered glass, the disarray, and the hull hemorrhaging fuel and air. “Thanks.” He announced gruffly.
Diana briefly stepped into her ready room and returned with an ancient and weathered case. Carefully, she produced a long cylindrical spear and wrapped her precious ring around the blades. The weapon reeked of world ending power.
Orion almost gasped. “Those haven’t been used since the great Exodus and even then only Islamic extremist dared to wield that lance against the Waste. How did you get one?”
“I’m from Riverside, I am resourceful.” She almost smiled. Suddenly she changed her tone. “Now you’ve got to get to the secondary command station, it’s about to get drafty in here.”
Orion crossed his arms. “I think I understand now, ma’am. You needed to get close enough.”
“Good, captain. I know who you called behind my back. It would be a shame to leave them with nothing to rescue. Now as your first test of command, you’ve got forty-five seconds to get the Twilight’s gate beyond a hundred kilometers from here.” She announced. Then her tone almost melted and a single worded sank from her lips before she encased herself completely in her suit. “Farewell.”
As Orion vanished into the corridor, Diana stood on the verge, only the shattered glass, just ready to give, stood in front of her. One last time, she looked at her command, her chair, and her warship. She thrust her booted foot through the glass and exploded into space. Shouldering the lance, she vectored forward. Oblivion loomed in front of her.
The shock of the Twilight’s Gate mighty pulse-jet engines only sharpened her desire. She did not even turn to watch her Star Caster pull out. Her ship obeyed her final command and within seconds, vanished into the stars.
Alone, Diana flew towards her prey. Her tiny white body silhouetted against the almost endlessly, black Oblivion. Up until now only hate guided her. Had her chest been a cannon she would have shot her heart at the Oblivion. Now for the first time in years, true fear finally gripped her. An endless torrent of emotions ripped through her as she clung to her final seconds. The young girl, deep inside, again screamed. Thoughts of her childhood, her parents, and a paradise filled her. She realized that life was most precious just before the end.
A single sweeping thought drowned out all others and she once again readied the spear. It struck and sank in between two grizzled panels and Diana reached for the little red button mounted on the shaft. She gave words to the calming terminal thought. “I’m coming Isaiah-- my love.” She depressed the death red button. Diana F. Skyes and her troubles, The Waste Hunter Raider Oblivion and a threat to humanity vanished in a spreading, blinding white light.
Hours passed like lifetimes aboard the remains of the Twilight’s Gate. They had clung closely to life until their salvation arrived. Her new mission commander called to their rescuers first. “This is M.C. Houston, to Planetary Guard Cutter, can you respond.”
A leathery voice filtered back through the radio. “This is Ulysses S Noman of the Eternity’s End. We’re feedin’ you a lifeline and a tow cable and we’ll be takin’ you to the nearest port soon enough. Please tell me where is Skyes, I haven’t caught up to my friend for a few years.”
The words barely found sound as Orion spoke. “She has gone with the Oblivion.”
“We’ll I hope she finally found her peace.” The gruff voice answered.
A glint of silver hovering just inside the Captain’s ready room caught Orion’s eye. He motioned towards it and grasped a thin locket hanging from the same chain of two battered dog tags. He gently flicked open the locket and found a single picture plastered inside. Three people smiled warmly and happily back at him. A man with a devil-may-care smile held his arm around a pre-teenaged son. The other arm embraced a gorgeous woman filled with vigor and life. It was Diana. Houston closed the locket and spoke into the radio. “Yes sir, I think she finally has.”

Note: “Had his chest been cannon, He would have shot his heart out” is not original to this fiction or the author. It is taken from the final scene of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. It has been placed here to emphasize the similarities between the characters Diana Skyes and Captain Ahab. No plagiarism was intended. It is simply an effect.

Heh...yeah, I noticed. Pretty good, but you've got to have the crew fear her more, otherwise they'll just remove her from command, 'cause of mental instability.

Cheers,
Guapo