She stepped into the ring and powered the embedded spellform with a shot of Aether. A translucent bubble formed over her showing a 360-degree view of the space around the ship. She could feel the Aether flowing into the machine grab hold of her to keep her in place if the ship were to jolt from incoming fire. If she focused, she could see beyond the projection and into the bridge proper.
“Ten seconds to normal space,” Connors said, staring down at his console. “Five. Four. Grav engines engaged. Two. Exiting.”
The stars stopped moving, and Sara found herself staring at a planet, looming over her right shoulder. It was light tan in color, with patches of green where vegetation dotted the vast deserts of empty continents. The oceans yellowish coloring spoke of shallow depths and high mineral concentrations. She recognized the continent they were over, and her display highlighted the crash site they needed to evacuate. She also noted the Teifen carrier, skimming the atmosphere between them and their destination.
“Battlestations,” Grimms yelled to the bridge crew.
The overhead lights dimmed, and a red strip of lighting began to glow around the ceiling. The communications officer, Ensign Mezner, repeated the warning through the ships comm.
Sara felt sweat begin to run down her neck and soak into the collar of her battlesuit. Alister was on her shoulder in an instant, his nails digging through the cloth, pricking her skin. The pain of his claws jerked her back to the here and now, and she scanned the area quickly.
There was only the one carrier, but there were thirty fighter craft in the atmosphere, attacking the researchers. She needed to get the attack craft’s focus off the planet and on them.
The whole scenario reeked of her and Cora's final exam, and Sara felt a chill run through her. On instinct, she looked for a broken moon, but the one moon on this planet was on the far side of the planet horizon, and it was intact.
“Focus,” she heard Cora say.
There was no cover in line of sight of the carrier. She would have to provide shields.
Fuck.
She leaned over to Alister, who was hissing slightly at the carrier in the viewing bubble and quietly said, “I’m going to need shields. Preferably in a wedge. Can you do that?”
In response, a spellform appeared in her mind. It was exactly what she wanted.
“Okay. Helm, bring the gravitic drive to full power and keep pouring on the speed. Cora, power up both Aetheric cannons, and warp us here,” she said, indicating a spot right over the carrier’s shoulder, halfway into the atmosphere. Sara felt the Aetheric tug as her wishes were translated to something Cora could understand. “I want the cannons to aim over our stern; we’ll hit them as we pass. We need to get down there and scatter the fighters before there are no researchers to evacuate.”
“Captain, we won’t be able to warp out of the atmosphere if we need to get away,” Grimms said, his voice controlled but urgent.
“I am aware of that, Commander.” Sara said, keeping her voice steady.
Ensign Mezner broke in. “The carrier has noticed us and is powering up their Aetheric cannon.” Her words were clear, but there was a tinge of fear in them.
“Thank you, Mezner. Cora, prepare for jump. All PDCs online, set for auto fire. Han, take aim with a full volley of gauss rounds at the stern of that carrier and fire right before our warp. Hopefully the energy flash from the warp bubble will hide the firing.”
Han gave the affirmative from weapons control, setting the solution to fire with Cora's command.
“Cora, are you ready? You have the helm. Jump right before they can get their cannon off,” Sara said, gripping the ring of controls around her, her knuckles going white.
“Two, one, warp,” Cora said.
All four tri-barreled gauss cannons fired. At the same time the image of the carrier and planet compressed down and then expanded at incredible speed. Sara had spun around to face the stern when the warp engaged, and now she saw the carrier looming over them.
They were quite a distance away, but the damned thing was so big, it looked like it was right on top of them. The Teifen were not the type to care what a ship looked like so much as what it could do. The carrier was boxy and full of sharp corners, and stretched across the sky for a good two kilometers, while being easily a half kilometer wide. It had fewer cannons than a battleship, but it still had enough for the Raven to worry about. It sported a dozen bays along the side facing the planet, where the fighters had launched. And they were all open.
“Ha! The stupid devils thought this was going to be a simple smash and grab; they didn't expect anyone to find them with their pants down. Cora, send two Aether bolts, right through the open bay doors,” Sara said with cool composure.
“With pleasure, Captain,” Cora's voice was cold, but she heard a smile in it.
The first Aether cannon let out a long blast of blue-white light that ate at the shielding, and the golden haze turned to an angry red. The Teifen had begun to close the doors, but they were far too slow. The second bolt hit the shields a split second after the first, and tore through, slamming into the open bay. An explosion rocked the carrier from deep inside, sending jets of flame from three of the bay doors.
The ship began to list to the side, and the bridge crew of the Raven let out a victory cry.
It was a little too soon to celebrate though. All the PDCs and gauss and laser cannons on the carrier opened up on them.
“Shields!” Grimms yelled from his command chair, his knuckles white on the armrests.
Sara fed the spellform that Alister provided, slamming a ton of power into it out of reflex. The shield popped up, a tight wedge covering the aft of the ship as they sped towards the planet’s surface. The first volley of laser blasts battered the shield, but only turned the golden color to a greenish yellow.
Then the gauss rounds slammed into the shield.
Because Sara had wisely requested a wedge shape, the rounds deflected off, rather than impart all their force into the shield. Although, the shielding still turned a burnt orange, just from the sheer volume of fire it was taking. Sara fed more Aether into the spellform Alister kept burning in her mind. The PDCs from the carrier peppered the shields in a continuous volley, followed by renewed laser and gauss rounds.
“Cora, can you get another Aether blast off?” Sara grunted with the effort of keeping the shield from collapsing.
“Yes, but it will only be at half power. I need another ten seconds before I can fire a full shot and keep everything else running.”
“Do it. I want to keep their shields focused on this side,” Sara said, scanning quickly to make sure the fighters were far enough away that she didn’t have to split her focus. They had obviously been called back to the carrier, but the thick atmosphere was slowing them down.
Cora let a third Aether bolt loose, slamming into their recharging shields, burning the weak shield quickly to a dark red before punching through and hitting the ruined bay once again. The blast was far less powerful then the first two shots, but still hit hard enough that a noticeable number of defensive turrets shut down.
“It looks like they are getting everyone on auxiliary shields. They’re coming up fast, and I won’t have another Aether blast for at least fifteen seconds,” Cora said.
“That’s just fine, it should be all over by then, anyway. Fire control, send another gauss volley their way.”
“Aye, Captain,” Han said, his face buried in his console.
The spellform Alister had fed her was unbelievable. The Raven’s shielding was holding, and Sara began to believe she could take on anything the carrier threw at her.
The ship rocked as sixteen one-hundred-kilogram slugs shot from the gauss cannons at relativistic speeds. They slammed into the carrier’s side, right where Cora had been focusing her Aether bolts. The shields flared, stopping some of the slugs, but other shots got through and ripped chunks from the back of the ship, as burning hot metal passed through the unprotected innards of the carrier.
&nbs
p; “Their Aether cannon is powering up again, Ma’am,” Connors reported.
“Got ya, you stupid sons of bitches,” Sara said quietly to the image of the carrier in her viewing bubble.
In a sudden move the carrier’s back end was shoved toward them as the original gauss rounds fired from half a million kilometers away finally made it to their target. The rounds slammed into the unshielded backside of the carrier. The hull around the reactors of any ship is armored quite well, but when sixteen slugs slammed into the same spot, one after the other, even the best armor will give. A small explosion propelled a jet of flaming gases from the stern of the carrier. Another explosion ripped the rear quarter of the ship to shreds and sent the rest of the now dark craft tumbling toward the planet’s surface.
Since Sara had told Connors to keep the speed on, they were safely outside the blast radius.
“That was incredible, Captain. I have to say, I had my doubts when I first met you, but you soundly proved me wrong,” Grimms said from his chair.
Sara could see the looks of wonder on the rest of the bridge crew’s faces.
“Ma’am, how did you know the backside of the ship would be unshielded?” Hon asked, his eyes wide.
“It takes a huge amount of Aether for the Teifen to power even a simple shield form. Because of that they split their shields into two and only protect the half facing battle. They can power the whole shield, but would run out of Aether quickly. By keeping them focused on this side of their ship they left the backdoor wide open for us.” Sara said, scanning to see where the fighters were.
“It’s all about knowing your enemy, Ensign,” Grimms said, looking at Sara with a new appreciation.
“Come on, people, focus. We still have thirty fighters to take out, and I don't know about you, but that sounds like a lot to me,” Sara said, scanning the bubble.
She found the tight group of fighters climbing out of the atmosphere at dangerous speeds. She was sure the little delta-winged craft were being buffeted around like crazy, even in the thin upper atmosphere.
An idea came to her.
“Connors, if we were to warp right on top of them, could we stop the ship before it impacted the ground?”
Connors’ eyes went wide. “You want to warp deeper into an atmosphere? The calculations for a warp would be skewed badly by the gravity field. We wouldn’t have much, if any, precision, Ma’am.”
Cora spoke up, “If you’re talking about a short distance we could do it, but only a few dozen kilometers. Anything more would tear the ship apart.”
“Can we slow enough to pull out in time if we warp from here to here?” Sara asked, marking the short distance in her display.
Connors did some quick calculations and nodded. “Yes Ma’am. It will be bumpy, but we will have plenty of room.”
“Good. Cora, warp here,” she marked the place and fed it to Cora through their link. “I need a shield that’s flat and wide enough to hit every ship in that grouping,” she whispered to Alister, who raised an eyebrow. “Don't look at me like that,” she said, turning back to the view.
“Do it, Cora,” Sara ordered, feeding everything she had into the new spellform Alister gave her.
The image scrunched, and then they were directly on top of the fighters. They were so close she swore she could see the surprised looks on a few of the horned Teifen.
The fighters scrambled hard, but Sara had put them on a collision course. The shield glowed golden as it slammed through the air. The fighters launched missiles in all directions as they tried to avoid each other and the incoming shield wall. A few of the ships slammed into one another, breaking apart upon impact, and the rest were shoved into the shield as the Raven shuddered through the atmosphere at an incredible speed. The shield kept them from damaging the ship too badly, but if Sara couldn't hold it until they had slowed enough, they would burn up.
The impacting ships were crushed against an uncompromising wall of Aether. Many of the missiles exploded against the shield as well, sending the golden color to yellow, then orange, and, finally, red.
Sara dumped every last bit of her Aether into the shield and prayed that she hadn’t just sentenced them to a fiery death of re-entry.
She could feel the hum of the PDCs firing in a continuous manner, but at what, Sara wasn’t quite sure; her focus remained on maintaining the shield. She felt the ship shudder as something impacted with them, followed shortly by another. She heard alarms and Grimms shouting orders, but she was so focused, she couldn't make out any details.
Finally, Cora's voice broke through her concentration. “Sara, we’re through. You can drop the shield.”
With a huff, Sara went limp, the Aether bindings in the control ring slowly lowering her body to the floor. She sat, breathing heavily and wiping tears from her eyes. Alister, looking a little beat as well, lay on the cool deck, panting slightly.
She felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see Grimms looking down at her, concern and wonder on his face.
“That was… well I’m not sure what that was, but it was impressive. All enemy combatants were eliminated. We took two missiles near the fusion reactors, so we had to shut two of them down until we can run thorough diagnostics.”
Sara nodded. “Good. Have some food brought to my quarters. I’m famished.” With that, she stumbled off the bridge and down the hall to her door. She was asleep, sprawled across her bed along with Alister, snoring away, when the food arrived.
Sara woke two hours later, and the food was cold. She ate every bite anyway.
Chapter 20
“Captain?” Grimms’s voice came through the communicator on the wall.
“Yes, Commander. What is it?” Sara asked from her shower. She was cleaning up after finishing her cold meal.
“Sir, we have a problem. Actually, we have two problems,” Grimms’s voice was low and gravelly. He was obviously angry at whatever news he had to tell her.
“I’ll be there in two minutes.”
Sara finished up with the shower and pulled on a clean battlesuit. She put her hair up in a tight bun while it was still wet, and grabbed Alister's still-sleeping form from the bed. He jerked awake in her hands and twisted so much she dropped him.
“Fine, you little shit, I was just trying to let you sleep a little longer,” she said to the little black cat as he yawned mightily on the floor.
He licked a paw and wiped the sleep from his eyes. With a “Merow,” he jumped to her shoulder as she walked out the door and headed down the hall to the bridge.
Sara found Commander Grimms and Ambassador Foss leaning over the map projector. She approached, and Alister jumped to the edge of the projector’s podium.
Foss caught her eye, and gave her a nod of approval. “That was spectacular work with the Teifen carrier, Captain. A truly inspired engagement.” He saluted with a fist over his heart in the Elif style.
“Thank you, Foss. Unfortunately, we took two missiles up the rear for the trouble.”
“About that,” Grimms chimed in, “We are going to need to give the crew a few days to get the reactors back on line. It seems that both reactors two and three experienced breaches in the fusion chambers. It knocked the magnetic field generators out of alignment. We can run on one reactor, but our speed with the gravity drives is seriously compromised, and our PDCs are compromised until we can get the power back up. The battery backups are fully charged, so we could potentially survive an attack, but if the engines need to pull too much power, we will have to shut down all nonessential equipment,” Grimms reported, sending a written version of the report to her display.
She looked it over and asked, “And the second?”
“The second?” Grimms asked, confused.
“You said there were two problems. I’m assuming this is the first?”
Understanding dawned, and he shook his head, “Sorry, Captain. That was just the after-action report. The problems are far worse. First, when we went over the battle recordings, we found that the Teife
n launched a scout ship during the battle. It looks like the ship entered a warp bubble soon after we engaged the enemy; it got away, sir. Presumably, they will have sent a report to the closest Teifen battle group, and the scout will be able to lead them back to us. We don't think they had a chance to send a report through the Aether, but if a mage was manning their communications at the time, they may have. Either way, we don't have much time until reinforcements arrive.”
Sara frowned. FTL communications were possible through the Aether, but they were not instant. They happened at around a hundred times the speed of warp—fast, but in the vastness of space, still time consuming. It also took a little time for a mage to power a communications packet to be sent out.
“So, we either have a few hours for the message to get there, or a few days for the scout ship to bring some backup. Either way, they will need to send ships here. Do we know where the closest battle group is?” She asked this last part of Ambassador Foss.
He shook his head. “I apologize, Captain, but the fleet is spread extremely thin, and we don't have even close to full coverage of this sector. There could be a battle group hours away, or days, or even weeks. We just don't know,” he said regretfully.
“Okay, so we assume the worst. Let’s say they are a few hours away. What’s the problem? We just bring the researchers up and we leave the system.”
Grimms growled and shot a glance at the ambassador. “It turns out that the researchers have been ordered to retrieve a core from the ancient ship at all costs. They refuse to come up to the ship until they retrieve it.”
The ambassador spoke up. “I, again, apologize. The core is a priceless artifact that could change the tide of the war. There has never been a core recovered intact in all Elif history. They were programmed to self-destruct if ships were damaged to the point of capture by the enemy. This is a missing piece of a very complicated puzzle. It is imperative that they gain access to the core,” Foss said, making it clear that the Elif would not budge on this.
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