“Keep an eye out for boarding craft,” McKnight instructed as the countdown to her final surprise reached three minutes remaining. She had hoped to draw the enemy further out of position than she had already done, but the relative positions of the enemy warships would certainly empower her last surprise. “As soon as we’re in firing range, focus fire on Captain Bashir’s Cruiser; that’s going to be a tough nut to crack, but if we can take it out then the individual matchups become a lot more winnable for our side.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ryan said with a nod as another series of faint shudders were felt through the deck plates. Their relative proximity following the point transfer had been a calculated risk, but it had also informed the efficacy of her plan since she knew that in less than two minutes, the heaviest hitter on her side would come into play—and it would appear directly behind the enemy flagship.
The countdown clock reached zero just as the formation’s forward shields dipped below 50% overall, and a new icon sprang into existence on the tactical readout.
“The Gamer Gate has broken the sump, ma’am,” Sensors reported triumphantly. “They’re already within firing range of the enemy Cruiser!”
No sooner had that report been made than Captain Archibald’s Heavy Cruiser unleashed the full might and fury of its arsenal on the enemy flagship, Omega’s Light. In the span of six seconds, eight turbo-lasers and twenty heavy lasers lashed out at the Imperial warship with enough combined firepower to destroy a small Destroyer outright. Only half of those weapons hit the mark, but the immediate reorientation of Bashir’s squadron of vessels prompted an uncharacteristic smirk to play over McKnight’s lips.
Before she could activate the fleet command channel, McKnight saw that every warship in the front of her formation unleashed its longest-range weaponry at the Omega’s Light, clearly hoping for a cheap shot on the now-depleted stern shielding of the Imperial warship. But Captain Bashir was more than competent; he had maneuvered his warship to present opposing broadsides to Archibald’s Heavy Cruiser and to McKnight’s oncoming fleet. Most of McKnight’s ships lacked significant long-range weaponry, which meant that even combined they were unlikely to match Archibald’s raw firepower.
McKnight knew that if they could take that Imperial warship out, they would turn the tide of battle solidly in their favor—and if they could not, the enemy would retain a significant advantage.
The Gamer Gate fired another salvo at its counterpart with devastating accuracy. Three fourths of Archibald’s weaponry struck true on the Omega’s Light, prompting Captain Bashir to immediately roll his warship and return fire with even greater precision. Not a single Imperial turbo-laser missed the mark, and the Gamer Gate was forced to adjust its bearing to present a fresh shield facing as Captain Archibald sought to outflank the faster, better-shielded, and generally superior Imperial vessel.
Another explosion rocked the ship badly enough that McKnight’s head struck her headrest with an audible crack. She shook her head to clear the cobwebs and heard Ryan’s belated report, “We just lost another Cutter—those mass drivers are killing us!”
“Watch your tone, Tactical,” McKnight said with a pointed glare, but the truth was that she shared his trepidation.
If those mass drivers weren’t taken offline soon, the battle would be over before they reached their target.
“Well…it ain’t ideal,” Lynch sighed, “but looks like it’s time for Fish to take his shot.” He tapped out a series of inputs onto his wrist-link just as the mag-lev car began to noticeably slow. “Let’s just hope your people can take full advantage; we’ve got our own concerns right about now.”
Lu Bu saw a hologram spring into being above Lynch’s arm, and that hologram showed a handful of flashing red icons moving toward the cluster of flashing green icons which she took to represent her team’s location.
“We’ve got company,” he said with a sigh. “They’ll be waitin’ for us at the other end of this tube.”
“How long until we arrive?” Lu Bu asked, unslinging Glacier Splitter and noting with satisfaction that her teammates were likewise readying their weapons. Even Shiyuan produced a blaster pistol which he checked with adequate proficiency—she had demanded he learn how to handle the weapon in sub-optimal conditions to prepare for precisely this type of situation. He would never be considered an expert marksman, but he could reliably hit a man-sized target in close quarters—and sometimes that was enough to turn the tide of battle.
“Ten minutes,” Lynch replied. “If y’all keep to any particular gods, now would be the time to pray to ‘em.”
“I am receiving a data packet on the secure channel Mr. Lynch designated in his brief, Captain,” Mr. Guo reported calmly.
McKnight’s heart skipped a beat as she instructed, “Forward it to my console.”
A moment later the contents of the message began to stream across her chair’s built-in screen, and a quick examination confirmed that the ciphers used were consistent with Lynch’s pre-mission battle plan.
“Tactical,” she forwarded the packet to Ryan as she spoke, “prioritize these targets and coordinate all fire to land simultaneously at the designated timestamp.”
“Got it,” Ryan said with a nod.
“Forward that packet to the rest of the fleet via the secure p2p beam, Mr. Guo,” McKnight added hastily. “Let’s make sure we put as much firepower on that Cruiser as possible.”
That Cruiser, the Omega’s Light, had seemingly absorbed everything her fleet had thrown at it without suffering any real damage. The same could not be said of the Gamer Gate, however, which had seen a half dozen turbo-laser strikes gouge into its hull while another dozen or so mass driver pellets had slammed into its formidable armor—armor which was woefully inadequate when dealing with mass driver impacts.
Mercifully, those same mass drivers suddenly ceased firing on McKnight’s fleet altogether. For several seconds none of the platforms sent their relatively small—but unthinkably destructive—payloads out into the space surrounding the planet.
Then, in a perfectly timed sequence beginning on the far side of the planet and rippling toward the Omega’s Light, those fixed-position mass driver platforms unleashed their solid pellets on Captain Bashir’s vessel.
“Firing window in three…two…one…firing!” Ryan exclaimed as those pellets converged on the Light’s position.
The Bastard’s weaponry was joined by nearly every other ship in the bulk freighter’s formation, and the Omega’s Light was pummeled by their combined firepower. The Gamer Gate lent its own weaponry to the assault, and several explosions registered on the Light’s primary hull.
“I don’t understand…” Ryan said in bewilderment, “it’s like the Light’s shields went down in the instant before our shots landed. Nearly every hit was directly against their hull!”
“Those mass driver pellets must have been electromagnetically charged,” Tiberius mused.
“What?” McKnight asked, turning to her XO as a series of increasingly powerful tremors could be felt through the ship’s deck plates, signaling repeated shield impacts to the front of the formation.
“It’s theoretically possible to attenuate the EM signature of a solid object in such a way that it can briefly interrupt a shield’s continuity,” Tiberius explained.
“Indeed,” Mr. Guo nodded, “it is an elite tactic utilized in several massively multiplayer naval warfare sims—“
“Back on task, people,” McKnight snapped as the Omega’s Light ejected one of its fusion cores. “Concentrate fire on that Cruiser; we can’t let them get their shields back up!”
“Ready to rock?” Lynch asked as he performed a customary check of his blaster pistols while Lu Bu’s teammates had each assumed a crouch in preparation for arrival at the end of the tunnel.
“We are ready,” Lu Bu said, gripping Glacier Splitter tightly in anticipation.
“Archie’s shell is essentially invulnerable, so they ain’t gonna show no mercy,” Lynch said as the
light at the end of the tunnel appeared, “I’d advise y’all to reciprocate.”
“Contact,” Mantis declared as the mag-lev slowed and the light at the end of the tunnel grew brighter and larger in their view.
“Take the shot,” Lu Bu growled as she deepened her crouch.
Mantis fired her long rifle by way of acknowledgment, and Lu Bu’s superior vision picked up on a flicker of movement at the end of the tunnel an instant before incoming fire streamed down the tunnel toward them. Blaster bolts exploded on the mag-lev car all around her, with several bolts impacting harmlessly against the Core Fragment’s spherical shell behind Lu Bu and her team.
The mag-lev car continued to slow, and Lu Bu took a pair of micro-grenades from her belt. She activated them as a pair before hurling the first down the track toward the nearest power-armored enemy she could see.
Without confirming she had struck her target, she activated and threw the second grenade to the opposite side of the tunnel’s opening. When it landed, the pair of grenades exploded simultaneously and two power-armored Imperial Marines were launched several feet from their previous positions behind their cover at the tunnel’s edge.
Lynch leapt from the mag-lev car just before it stopped moving and sent a stream of blaster bolts into the still-reeling Marines that Lu Bu had dislodged with her grenades. Lynch’s blaster fire struck the marines squarely in their torsos, but did little more than keep them from regaining their feet as he ran toward them at a sprint—somehow landing each shot he fired as he ran.
Mantis opened fire with her long rifle once again, taking the left Marine in the gorget during a brief window when his chin tilted upward to expose his less-armored neck. He went to his knees and clutched at his throat with both hands, clearly having suffered a critical wound.
Hutch exited the mag-lev car opposite Lu Bu, and the two charged down the walkway during the short window created by the effective neutralization of the two Marines which had stood sentry at the tunnel’s mouth. Lu Bu only reached halfway to the tunnel’s opening before a quartet of blaster bolts slammed into her chest, nearly stopping her momentum and sending her to one knee as she struggled to keep her grip on Glacier Splitter.
She was still six paces from the dying Marine which Mantis had throat-shot, which may as well have been a hundred paces to Lu Bu’s frustrated mind. Thankfully it seemed Hutch had received less fire than she had, and he reached Lynch’s side just as the arms dealer fired a half dozen blaster bolts at point blank range into the rightward Marine’s helmet. At least one of those bolts penetrated the Marine’s casement, making his body go limp as Lynch and Hutch dove past him and made for the light cover provided by a short stack of crates.
Mantis fired another shot from her long rifle just as Lu Bu regained her feet and resumed her charge toward the nearest available cover, which was the mag-leg’s primary power conduit housing. She scrambled into position behind it just as fire began to pour all around her, with a lucky shot taking her in the right calf with such force that she briefly feared it had amputated her leg.
A quick look confirmed that the leg was still where it was supposed to be, and a roll of her ankle suggested she had lost no mobility. The pain was nonetheless extraordinary, and it was that pain which fueled her building rage.
“I’ve got six on the far side behind the crates—“ Lynch declared, only to be interrupted by another of Mantis’ long rifle shots. Lynch peered around the corner and glibly amended, “Make that ‘five’ on the far side.”
“Hutch,” Lu Bu said, gathering her feet beneath her and preparing for a spring across the hundred-foot-long chamber, “you approach from right, I will approach from left.”
“Got it,” Hutch acknowledged.
“Mantis—“ Lu Bu began just as the sniper snapped off another round, causing the team leader’s lips to peel back in a feral snarl, “do what you do.”
“On it,” Mantis replied coolly.
“What about me?” Shiyuan asked, sounding mildly offended as Lu Bu charged out from behind cover and began to sprint toward the enemy position.
“Try not to die, ‘Kitten’,” Hutch growled, mocking Jarrett for his infatuation with felines as he spun around the edge of his crate and joined Lu Bu.
Lu Bu barked a harsh laugh as her feet churned beneath her, and the enemy Marines immediately opened fire on her as she and Hutch advanced on their position. Juking and weaving, she managed to avoid the first two incoming blaster bolts before the third struck her in the left flank. She let the weapon’s impact spin her around as she pirouetted with Glacier Splitter in hand, using the massive weapon as a counterbalance which allowed her to resume her previous course without needing to reset her feet.
Another blaster bolt streaked past her helmet, but its author was taken through the visor by Mantis—who, firing from a range of about a hundred feet, likely considered the engagement the equivalent of using a scattergun to shoot fish in an aquarium.
Lu Bu saw Hutch press forward and, for a moment, she envied his nearly fifty extra kilos of body weight as the second blaster bolt impact on her chest and robbed her of a half-step’s momentum.
But her churning legs soon brought her within striking distance of three Imperial Marines. She activated Glacier Splitter’s gravity generator with a subtle twist of the hammer’s haft and swung the weapon in a long, deadly overhand arc aimed at the nearest Marine’s collar.
The Marine brought his right arm up to intercept the hammer, and Lu Bu gladly drove the stone-and-duralloy hammerhead into the unsuspecting warrior’s vambrace. The crack of the impact echoed through the chamber and the Marine was sent reeling to the floor. Lu Bu followed up with a smooth, upward counterstroke aimed at his faceplate as he struggled to remain upright.
His helmet deformed from the force of her blow, but rather than press the attack against the vulnerable Marine she pivoted her weight around the hammer to avoid a second Marine’s lunging attack with arm-mounted vibro-blades. His attack sliced through the air where her torso had been a half-second earlier, and she drove Glacier Splitter into his torso’s rear armor. The hammer’s gravity generator had not yet recharged to full, so the attack did little more than clang off his robust armor plating—but that was all Lu Bu had intended for it to do.
Drawing the hammer back to a ready position, she ducked a swiping attack from the Marine as he spun around to face her. Hutch unloaded his plasma shotgun into the third Marine’s arm while Lu Bu scampered away from the second Marine. As she backpedaled, she inadvertently stepped into the path of the plasma blast and felt a wave of heat wash over her which made her thankful she wore her Red Hare armor, which was effectively invulnerable to thermal attacks—as long as it remained intact, of course.
The first Marine staggered in an attempt to regain his feet, but failed and fell over to his side before he could do so. Lu Bu was confident she could easily defeat the second Marine one-on-one, so she braced herself and blocked an incoming stab of his vibro-blade with her warhammer’s head. Sparks flew as the blade met the hardened duralloy of the hammer’s reinforcing bindings, but Lu Bu allowed the Marine’s blade to penetrate nearly an inch into the thick, stone head. She then twisted the weapon sideways and yanked it back to a ready position before sweeping low at the Marine’s front knee.
The Marine recovered position but was forced to parry her blow, which she followed with another aimed at the inside of his other knee. He parried this blow as well, but Lu Bu’s attacks were short and precise; she was merely setting him up for a high attack which they both knew would come shortly.
Another half dozen blows rang out as he intercepted the warhammer with his forearms or the vibro-blades built into them, but then her opening came and she feinted as though she meant to take that opening.
He countered with surprising grace and speed as he brought his forearms up to block the phantom attack, and realized too late that she had tricked him into leaving his legs exposed.
She quick-charged Glacier Splitter’s gravity gen
erators and drove the massive hammer into his left knee with everything she could put behind it. The knee actually broke out of alignment, with the upper and lower leg plates separating entirely as the metal joint was shredded.
Blood poured from the rent armor and the Marine toppled ponderously to the side. He managed to take a good swipe at her on his way down, but she was already several inches outside of his range and he hit the stone floor with a satisfying crash.
Lu Bu re-set the hammer’s gravity generators and smashed his weaponized arm with the first blow, before putting him down for good with a trio of well-placed hits to his helmet that saw him go limp.
She turned her attention to the first Marine just as Hutch’s plasma shotgun spat blue fire at him, enveloping his armor with three shots in rapid succession. Lu Bu was grimly certain that with the damage she had caused to his armor, the plasma would fatally burn him within his armored case. Her prediction proved accurate when his body ceased moving a few seconds later.
She actually scowled at the idea that Hutch had taken two of the three Marines while she had only notched one for herself, and grudgingly nodded, “Good work, Hutch.”
“Happy to help,” he snickered, producing a fresh set of cartridges for his plasma shotgun which he began to rack into the magazine one at a time.
“Now I’ve seen me some fancy fightin’ in my time,” Lynch said as he came around the crates. “But y’all is for real, ain’t ya?”
Lu Bu saw Mantis and Shiyuan emerging from the tunnel, and Lynch tapped out a few commands to his wrist-link which saw the Core Fragment begin to float ominously toward them. Lu Bu hated the thing; there was something so unnatural to her about the very idea of artificial intelligence—let alone artificial super-intelligence—that she felt on a very primal level that she now shared a room with a predator which would not be satisfied until humanity had been enslaved to the same degree which humanity had enslaved chickens so many thousands of years earlier.
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