by C H Gideon
“I hope that fucking thing lands on and kills Phraim-’Eh’s favorite cow,” XO cursed.
“We’re running out of mines,” Geroux reported. “They’ve done a lot of damage, but the enemy is throwing tracers now and clearing them out.”
“I’m almost out of rigged Pods, too,” Jiya warned as she slammed another of them into a listing destroyer.
That was the final blow against that ship, and it exploded, its damaged hull unable to take any more.
“Seven,” Asya called.
“Six and a half, technically,” Reynolds corrected. “We’ve got one drifting who’s moved out of firing range. Unless they fix what’s wrong soon, they’ll be completely out of the fight.”
“That’s still steep odds,” XO noted.
The Godhand swept back around then, pounding the SD Reynolds with railgun fire from above.
The lights dimmed and alarms sounded. but this time Reynolds didn’t bother to address it. He let both go as Ria fought to evade the cult’s command ship.
“Anything, Takal?” Reynolds asked over the comm.
“Another minute,” he shot back. “Hit a snag. The process is locking up.”
“Phraim-’Eh is going to hit us with a snag if you don’t hurry up,” Reynolds growled.
Ria maneuvered the superdreadnought around, taking advantage of the remaining minefields and managed to get them behind the Godhand.
Tactical and Jiya jumped on the opportunity and unleashed everything they had.
Explosions rippled along the rear of the ship, tearing through the shields and scoring the hull. Other than a moral victory, it did little to slow the massive ship down.
“I wished we’d have thought to put explosives on those damn tracer rounds we dotted the Godhand with earlier,” Tactical said.
“If the missiles and rigged shuttles we’re hitting it with aren’t taking it down, the tiny bits of explosive we could have added sure as hell wouldn’t have done anything.” Reynolds shrugged.
“Can we do anything else with those things, Takal?” Jiya asked over the comm.
“Busy here,” came the reply, followed by a curt, “No.”
“ESD time?” Tactical asked.
“Not yet,” Reynolds told him again.
Tactical didn’t even bother to complain. He unloaded a salvo of missiles into the rear of the Godhand as the flagship evaded, muting most of the damage.
“All the Pods are done!” Jiya advised. “I’m chucking pucks out of the bays to see if we get lucky.”
Explosions erupted all around the ship as the remaining mines went up, doing what damage they could.
It was minimal.
The enemy fleet was reforming on their command ship, and the entire group was coming about, angling attack vectors toward the Reynolds.
“I’m going to have to start throwing rocks soon,” Tactical called. “Munitions are starting to tank.”
“Shields are at forty percent,” Asya informed. “Thirty-nine,” she corrected as another blast rattled the ship’s port side.
“Deaths?” Reynolds asked, even though he didn’t want to.
“Negative,” Jiya’s answer came back. “Our moving all non-essential personnel to the inner quarters and replacing almost every job on the ship with bots has kept our people safe. We’ve got some injuries, and a few serious ones, unfortunately, but no one has died.”
“A damn miracle is what that is,” Maddox said.
“We could use another of those right about now,” Ka’nak exclaimed.
“Though I don’t dare consider my people or me a miracle, I would imagine something like this is what you mean.”
Jiya snapped around at the unexpected voice to see Xyxl right after he materialized on the bridge, the Reynolds’ shields now attuned to allow him to board without resistance no matter their setting.
“You have impeccable timing,” Reynolds told the alien. “Now help us take these pieces of shit out!”
“As you wish,” Xyxl replied.
Gulg warships appeared in the space above the Reynolds then, Gating in and engaging the cult’s fleet.
“About damn time!” Ka’nak whooped.
Chapter Twenty
“Three fucking ships?” Reynolds snarled a few seconds later when he realized the entirety of the backup Xyxl had brought with him. “You only brought three ships?”
Xyxl, having shifted his energies into the humanoid Reynolds and the crew were used to, did his best imitation of a shrug.
“I have apparently reached my allotment of starships,” the alien explained. “Three was all my people were willing to provide.”
“It’ll have to do,” Reynolds said.
“If it helps, I transported down to Takal’s laboratory for a moment before I came here,” Xyxl offered. “I aided him with the last of the program we concocted. Takal is still uncertain given its experimental nature, but I have absolute faith that it will work as designed.”
Reynolds grinned broadly. “I’d kiss you if I didn’t think it would fry my circuits.”
“A simple thanks will suffice,” the alien protested.
The AI spun away from the alien as the Gulg ships ganged up on one of the enemy destroyers and took it down.
“There we go,” he said, then triggered the comm. “Time’s up, Takal. Put your baby to work.”
“As you wish,” Takal replied.
“Pull us out of the fight, Ensign,” Reynolds ordered as the ship was targeted by Phraim-’Eh’s Godhand.
The ship trembled, and Reynolds could feel the blow to his core as Ria raced to comply with his order.
“Shields at twenty percent.” Asya wiped sweat from her brow, eyes narrowed as she both commanded the superdreadnought and kept track of all the damage reports as they whirled across her monitor.
“Can we buffer them again?” Reynolds questioned.
“Not if we want to keep the ESD in reserve,” she replied matter-of-factly. “We’ll end up trading one for another if we go that route.”
“I can help a little with that,” Xyxl told them, “but it won’t be much. My own energies are depleted from the journey here.”
Reynolds nodded. “We’ll make do,” he said.
The Godhand pulled back as the three Gulg ships went after it. Bursts of energy trailed after it, tearing at its shields, then the massive ship swung about and returned fire.
Reynolds didn’t see what happened because a destroyer filled his view then. It opened up, and the SD Reynolds bucked under the assault.
Then it was over and the destroyer was veering off, its lower hull shrieking past not twenty meters above the superdreadnought as Takal’s and Xyxl’s program took hold of the ship and usurped its command just as Jora’nal had done to Gorad’s and the Gulg ships.
“Holy Fuck!” Jiya cheered.
“It works!” Takal shouted over the comm. “It truly works. I’m in complete control of the craft.”
“I knew it would,” Reynolds told him.
He caught Jiya grilling him with a raised eyebrow.
“Okay, I’ll admit…I really wanted it to work,” he clarified.
Jiya chuckled.
But even with Takal and Xyxl’s secret project having borne fruit, the Reynolds wasn’t out of danger.
Two more of the destroyers maneuvered into position and pounded the ship.
The bridge went dark, then the emergency lights fluttered and came on. The crew were cast in deep shadows.
“Shields at twelve percent, Captain,” Asya reported. “One or two more hits and we’ll be counting on the armor alone,” she warned.
Takal’s controlled destroyer streaked past them again, crashing headlong into the first of the two destroyers chasing the superdreadnought.
There was a thunderous boom when they collided and the two ships spun away, forever entangled.
“One of the Gulg ships dropped off the scanners,” Asya told the AI, casting a furtive glance Xyxl’s direction.
“My people
transferred to the next ship in line, so don’t worry for us,” the alien assured them.
“That is such a neat trick,” Jiya commented.
“It has its benefits, no doubt,” Xyxl agreed.
“What’s the count, Asya?” Reynolds asked.
“Four, not counting your half a ship, which still hasn’t rejoined the fight,” she replied.
“Three if you remove the one I’ve just taken control of,” Takal crowed. “Though I have to admit, these ships are quite difficult to maneuver.”
The Reynolds was struck from behind, weapons fire strafing its length as Ria dodged to avoid the full impact.
“Godhand is on our ass,” Asya said.
“That’s a bit perverse,” Ka’nak said from the back of the bridge.
“My companions are on it,” Xyxl assured, but the superdreadnought ended up on the receiving end of yet another blast of fire.
“Shields are fucked, Captain. Cooked,” Asya told the AI. “All that stands between them and us is the armor.”
Two of the remaining destroyers tag-teamed one of the Gulg ships, slipping around behind it while it engaged the Godhand.
Its hull was ripped open at its flank, and although it wasn’t a killing blow, the ship had no choice but to veer aside and break off its pursuit of Phraim-’Eh’s command ship.
Takal released control of the ship he had previously grabbed after shooting it off into space, and he took the reins of one of the destroyers that had just wounded the Gulg ship.
That ship spun on its companion and opened up at close range. The targeted ship’s shields flashed, but most of the blasts struck true, blowing through its defenses.
The wounded destroyer listed, lost control, and began to tumble. It collided with one of the few remaining patches of cloaked mines, which only compounded its misery.
It tumbled end over end and disappeared into the blackness of space.
“Can you grab the damn Godhand?” Reynolds asked the inventor as the monstrous ship recovered from the Gulg attack. It reengaged the Reynolds after a destroyer assailed the last of the functional Gulg craft and peeled it off the Godhand’s back.
“We’re not going to win the fight like this,” Reynold said more to himself than anyone else. “We’ve got to do something different.”
He glanced at Jiya, wondering she would do in that situation, and it came to him.
Something crazy.
“Coordinate with me, Xyxl,” the AI called. “Ria, bring us about as sharply as you can without ripping us in half.”
The ensign did just that. The ship felt as if it might tear apart at the seams, but it held. “Tactical, hit that asshole with everything we’ve got left right where I’m marking the target.”
He spun on the alien.
“Have your ship do the same, Xyxl,” he urged. “Fuck it! You too, Takal. Put that borrowed muscle to work.”
All three ships converged on the Godhand, angling around to come at it from the same side. Accidentally obliging them, the command ship turned away to avoid a possible collision, only to mistakenly give them an easier target.
The trio of ships fired within milliseconds of one another, each blast crashing into the Godhand’s shields at almost exactly the same spot.
To disastrous effect.
A ripple formed in the enemy’s shield and it ran outward, the combined attacks tearing a hole in the Godhand’s defenses.
Reynolds knew it would only last for a moment.
“Ka’nak, Jiya, on me,” Reynolds called.
Though they had no idea what he was summoning them for, both crewmembers raced over to his side by instinct, eyes wide, questioning what he expected of them.
Reynolds overrode the transport system and sent them hurtling across space toward the rip in the Godhand’s shields.
The three of them crashed to the deck aboard Phraim-’Eh’s command ship, having appeared about a foot off the ground.
Every cultist on the bridge turned and stared at them, disbelieving and frozen in place.
“A little warning next time,” Jiya said as she scrambled to her feet, unholstered her pistol, and started shooting cultists. “How’d you even know where to place us?”
Ka’nak didn’t even bother to grab his weapon. He plowed into the cultists wholesale and began beating them to death before they even realized what was happening.
“I scanned the layout of one of Phraim-’Eh’s destroyers,” the AI explained. “They and the command ship are quite similar in external design, especially when it comes to the forward nose and bridge area. I made an educated guess as to where we would land.” Reynolds raised a finger. “Oh, by the way, Asya, you’ve got the conn,” Reynolds called into his comm.
Asya chuckled across the connection. “Better late than never, right?”
Reynolds spun around and blasted a cultist who’d found the presence of mind to draw his pistol. He crumpled to the floor, dead.
Not having expected the sudden arrival of the enemy on their command ship’s bridge, the cultists fell into disarray and died quickly.
Ka’nak stretched his moment out a little longer, swinging a cultist in each hand to bash their brethren to death with their bodies. Blood was flung across consoles and pooled on the deck around him.
“I think they’re dead now,” Jiya told him.
The Melowi glanced from his right hand to his left, seeing both of the bodies there hanging limp.
“So they are,” he replied, shrugging and tossing the corpses aside.
Jiya turned to look at Reynolds. “What now?”
“Start breaking shit,” he ordered, taking the lead and blasting the nearest console.
“That’s my kind of order.” Ka’nak grinned and started to smashing anything he could get his hands on.
Jiya followed suit, choosing to shoot the command consoles first, hoping to disable the ship to keep it from being used against the SD Reynolds and her friends.
“You dare!” A loud, gravelly voice screeched from the open doorway.
The crew spun around to see Phraim-’Eh standing there, nearly frothing at the mouth in his rage.
Reynolds went to respond, but the would-be god was far faster than the AI anticipated.
He was across the bridge in two leaping steps, and he crashed into Reynolds’ android body, the two of them slamming into the nearest console.
The impact shook the deck.
Reynolds reeled as he tried to comprehend the speed and power of Phraim-’Eh. It was nearly unfathomable.
Sensors noted that his uniform had been ripped open and the faux flesh on his back has been sliced off by the sharp edge of the console. Servos whined in his spine, and warning lights flickered in his vision.
Reynolds couldn’t ever remember having been struck that hard.
And Phraim-’Eh had only begun.
He lifted Reynolds into the air and slammed him to the deck as if he were a doll in the hands of a giant.
There was a sharp snap, and the AI realized his mechanical arm had popped at the joint and was angled backward, opposite its normal direction.
His mind reeled under the onslaught, and he watched as the god pulled back a fist and made ready to smash his face in.
Jiya got there first.
She stepped up, far too close to Phraim-’Eh Reynolds realized, and shot him dead center in his chest.
The cultists’ god was flung backward, colliding with a wall and sliding to the floor. Reynolds dropped, but Jiya caught him by his stable arm and wrenched him back to his feet.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Reynolds told her.
“Like I’m going to leave you to get your ass kicked,” she said, grinning. “Not even if he is a god.”
“Watch out!” Ka’nak yelled.
Phraim-’Eh was on his feet already, and he lunged at Reynolds and Jiya. She turned her weapon on the god, but Ka’nak plowed into him first. The two crashed to the floor in a mass of tangled, thrashing limbs.
“S
tay away from him,” Reynolds warned. “He’s too strong.”
Ka’nak learned that the hard way.
Phraim-’Eh shrugged the brawler off with ease and drove a fist into the Melowi’s sternum. A sharp crack told Reynolds something had been broken inside Ka’nak.
The warrior screamed, but he was made of far sterner stuff than even Reynolds realized.
He gritted his teeth and ignored the pain, driving a brutal punch into Phraim-’Eh’s kidney, followed by a second.
The blows lifted the would-be god off his feet.
Ka’nak came around with a wide right hook to follow up. Knuckles collided with the hard bone of the god’s jaw, and another pop reverberated through the room.
Phraim-’Eh stumbled backward from the impact, eyes narrowed and steeped with pain.
Despite the perfectly targeted punch, a quick glance at Ka’nak’s misshapen fist told the AI that he hadn’t delivered the blow without consequence.
But if a broken hand meant anything to the Melowi, it wasn’t clear.
He leaped across the intervening space between him and Phraim-’Eh and punched him in the face again and again and again with his already-damaged fist.
The blows drove Phraim-’Eh to one knee, but there was plenty of fight left in him.
Ka’nak had to lean over to continue punching him, so he slammed his forehead into the Melowi’s face and shattered the warrior’s nose. A gush of blood spewed forth and washed across his mouth and chin like a waterfall.
Ka’nak stumbled, his legs wobbling beneath him, but Jiya jumped back into the fight.
She scorched a trail of fire up Phraim-’Eh’s body, starting at his belly and shooting her way up until she blasted him in the face.
The would-be god rolled with the last of the shots and howled as he staggered to the side.
Reynolds wouldn’t let him off the hook.
The AI charged the god and kicked him against the wall, using the momentum of Phraim-’Eh bouncing back to drive his good fist into the god’s throat.
Phraim-’Eh gasped and clutched his neck, gurgles and froth spilling from his mouth as he struggled to breathe.
Reynolds struck him again, metallic fist colliding with the sharpened ledge of his cheek, shattering the bone there with a sound like kindling snapped apart.
