"I have three emitters about to burn out, here," Easy replied. "Trade ya?"
"Hang in there, our window is about to open," Ronin said.
The Ascent One loomed, its point defence guns turning, following their targets as best as they could, spitting shards of glowing hot rounds at the three of them as Dame, Ronin and Easy evaded. It was time to decelerate. If they kept moving at that speed, they would never pull up in time to skim along the hull. Her thrusters turned around and blasted as forcefully as they could, moving her ship every which way as she dodged incoming fire and slowed her approach.
The flock of heavy cannon fire from the Merciless and Triton finally struck a small section of shield right in the middle of the Ascent One's eight hundred and forty metre length. The shields were almost completely down there, and Ronin turned towards them, firing his main cannons. Dame and Easy joined him, blasting the thinned section of shields.
It wasn't like her to be afraid, to doubt her course of action, but Dame realized she'd stopped breathing as they committed to their trajectories, as her guns rumbled and rocked on their mounts. Her eyes grew wider as the energy barrier and hull loomed. "Point your shield geometry! Turn them up as high as you can without burning your emitters out!" Ronin ordered.
Dame realized she was still going too fast. It was the mistake of someone who was distracted, fatigued, or inexperienced. Maybe she was all three, but the only way to correct her error was to turn her ship around so her rear thrusters could join her thruster pods in slowing her down. Muscle memory and her neural assistance interface made it possible for her to do just that, and her shields were tuned so they made a fine point. It reminded her of a bee charging stinger first in a death dive.
An explosion of sparks in her cockpit and a sudden rise in temperature nearly tricked her into thinking her ship had wrecked on the surface of the shield. As she pulled up, narrowly avoiding a direct collision with the hull of the Ascent One, she saw that she'd taken damage: her main inertial dampener had burned out along with two aft shield emitters. "Dame!" Easy cried.
His Uriel fighter swept past her, blasting an anti-starfighter turret with a quick double-burst of rounds, shredding the emplacement. "I'm all right, thank you," she said, sighting another turret, guiding her ship towards it as she activated a diagnostic program. When a complex ship had big problems, it invariably had several little, harder to find problems too.
"You came in a little too fast, passed us both and hit that shield like a meteor," he said, relieved, laughing. "I thought we'd have to scrape you off the hull."
"I'm fine," Dame said, rattling her guns at a turret that was turning in her direction. Her fighter skimmed the hull, making it difficult for any gun to get a good shot. The unshielded turret and the ball with the controller inside went dark, then stopped moving as the motion system was blasted through. "I only have thirteen percent shielding aft, and a maximum of twenty five percent everywhere else, though. My power systems are too damaged and I'm using a backup dampener. I am fine, though. Thank you."
"A launch bay is opening up: Frame twenty-four, section seventeen," Ronin said. "Easy and I will shut it down. Dame; start firing drillers at strategic targets. Take turrets out as you go, we need to start clearing a path for our boarding teams."
"Yes, Sir," Dame said as she blasted another turret, one burst tearing through its light armour. They were made to fire from behind heavy capitol ship shields, not take armour piercing hits on their naked metal plating. With the help of her neural interface, she started scanning for computing centres and main data lines under the Ascent One's hull. It was like flying across a hostile metal landscape dotted with violent, spitting plants.
The results of her scan showed several hot spots, places where data lines came close to the hull of the ship. They laid out like roots under the ground, reaching out to important systems then spreading out. She could no longer hear her guns when they fired, but felt them as they rattled the frame of her Uriel around her, unleashing quick, effective bursts at two turrets, stationary targets that could barely get a shot at her before they were ripped to shreds. The first target, a major data line that connected to the main antenna, came up and she launched her first Driller, then her second.
The heads of both bit into the hull, reporting that the skitters inside were powering up, getting ready to leap into the ship and tap into any data line they could create a connection to. They would all start broadcasting to Haven ships so they could start hacking into the Ascent One's systems.
On to the next big data convergence she flew, diving under a metal spar that ran along over a hundred metres of the steel beast's hull. In her mind, that's what it was like. The data lines beneath the hull spread out like veins under the dark armoured skin of the giant they fought to undermine. The five anti-starfighter guns she destroyed next couldn't fire back at her, not while she was in the six metre space between the hull of the ship and an armoured antenna. They could have gotten a shot off, but the safeties built into their targeting program prevented them from blasting a part of the ship they were affixed to. They were so much target practice, all but one of them reduced to scrap with single second bursts. That last one took two bursts because her aft thruster pod touched the hull of the Ascent One, a reminder that she was taking a lot of chances to get where she was going.
There was a cluster of data connections just under the hull, highlighted in red by her tactical system. The lines were coming together like a spider's web, forming a thick bundle in the middle. That was the scanning array, the main one, the high-powered eyes of the ship. There were others, she'd passed one on her way to this system, but this one was definitely the main one, the cyclops' eye. It was covered by a transparent metal armoured dome, thousands of receiver systems beneath, some of which glittered, most likely devices that were made of rare metals or synthetic materials that were more delicate than a wisp of smoke. No weapon she had could get through the protective metal protecting their main scanning array, but the drillers didn't need to hit that target. Instead she launched one so it stuck into the hull right beside the main armour, then another to the right of the scanning array. They started cutting into the hull right away. The skitters inside would have no trouble finding major data lines from where they'd emerge.
"A few drones got past us, Dame," Ronin said. "They're after you. Come towards us, evade as much as you can, we'll cover you."
"On my way," she replied, flipping her fighter end-over-end and thrusting roughly back the way she came. Her reticule lined up with an anti-starfighter turret and her trigger finger tapped automatically, sending a second's worth of heavy rounds through it. The thing unravelled in a burst of metal plates, its twin guns stuck turning to port as though a dead man was leaning on a controller.
"Ronin," Easy said, his voice tight, desperate.
"I know, I'm working on it," Ronin replied, the sounds of his guns barking in the background.
A glance at their location on the tactical map revealed that most of the drones that were coming for her had suddenly turned back to assault Easy and Ronin was catching up, but he might not be in time. Easy was facing nine drones at once, his fighter turning, main guns blasting one after another. "Ronin, my launch door's stuck. I can't get my Rapidfires out."
Dame pushed her thrusters as hard as she could, leaving scorch marks on the Ascent One's hull. Rapidfire drones, I forgot we had them, she thought to herself, getting the pair she carried aboard her fighter ready. Once she was in range, she'd launch them, they'd help even the numbers out a little. I can't believe I forgot we had them. It was a lucky thing, though. This moment, more so than any before, was the right one to use them.
Ronin shot three of the enemy drones down in one sweep. Easy's fighter had taken damage - one of his thruster pods was destroyed, and his canopy had a through-and-through hole from starboard to port - but he was relentless in his zig-zagging manoeuvres, in firing burst after burst at his assailants. They were down to two enemy drones when a port in the Ascent
One's hull opened and started launching two per second.
There were five drones in front of Dame, they were from the group that originally started towards her, and they would get a clear shot at her if she continued flying directly towards Easy and Ronin. Dame had to change course so she could use a lip in the metal plating of the hull for momentary cover. She could follow it in a long curve so she could get around to Easy and Ronin using a safer, longer route, but was it the right way? The only way?
Her fighter was skimming so close to the hull that she had a shot at the drone port ahead. It was still open, launching a new assailants like an automatic rifle. Beneath rows of thick rods and between two boxy observation sections that protruded from the hull, she would have a shot to launch a missile at the port. Her forward shields were fully charged, she'd have a chance. Readying two guided missiles loaded with conventional explosives, she considered which tactic she would use after they were away.
Running, using the ridges and irregularities of the Ascent One's hull made sense, but only if she could protect her aft side by keeping obstacles between her and the drones. That would be difficult. Good drones were always quicker than flesh-and-blood pilots in tight spaces.
There was the other way; momentarily face off with the drones, destroying as many as she could before ducking under the shield rods ahead. There were fifty-five of the long, delicate emitters, each about ten metres long, running parallel to the hull, and once she came up on the other side, near the drone launch port, she would be able to coordinate with Ronin and Easy. There was a chance the drones would take shots on her even though they stood a high chance at damaging their own mothership, or that Dame's fighter wouldn't survive the three second face-off that would precede her flight beneath the emitter rods, but running would expose her much weaker rear shields.
Then the time came for her to launch her missiles, and as she sent both of them flying under the emitter rods, between the observation posts, then on to the drone launcher port. The missiles caught the far lip of the port, sending a burst of shrapnel that looked like a geyser of shredded metal in the distance, flinging several drones every which way. Some were obliterated as they crushed into the shield overhead.
Then it was time to make her decision. Dame took a sharp, deep breath as she accelerated past the ridge to her right, her opportunity to take cover, to fly the long way around to get to her wingmates gone. Then, letting her breath out, she mentally lined up her targets. As the five drones rushing towards her came into her naked eye's view, she let a burst roar at the closest.
The forward shields of her Uriel reported hits: 23% then 18% before the first drone was split roughly down the middle by a triple burst from her guns. The second was shredded after only two bursts. Forward shields reported 11%, and she was already firing at the third drone as it tried to move out of her line of sight, rushing towards her all the while. Another decision had to be made; she could take a chance and keep firing at it while she tried to manoeuvre her ship under the shield emitter array or concentrate. Then she remembered one of the pilots who beat her handily in a simulation. Traveller, formerly Hot Chow, won several death match skirmishes while flying aft-end first the entire time. While she hadn't mastered that kind of flying, at least not to his level, Dame did practice it often enough. That was how she might be able to keep fighting while she took cover.
Instead of firing at the drone passing her, Dame made sure she was lined up to skip right under that long row of giant shield emitter rods, then turned her fighter end over end before it slipped beneath them. There was a two-metre gap between each of the rods, and the drones didn't bother following her. Instead they turned and fired from above, their rounds avoiding the emitters. Dame wasn't so careful. The nose of her fighter had just enough room to tilt up as she flew backwards, to angle its heavy guns at the drones, and as soon as she could see the drones through the rods as they passed overhead, she opened fire.
Half her rounds tore chunks out of the emitter rods, exposing the conductors under their housings along with important balancing and control devices. Her tactical system informed her that the shields protecting that section of the Ascent One from exterior attack were on the verge of failing. It was an unintended bonus. The most important thing to her in that moment was that half her rounds made their way between the gaps in the rods as she passed under them, eventually ripping one drone to pieces. The last of her attackers continued its careful assault, taking her shields down to 2% before several of her shells smashed its starboard side. It flew in a tight circle, then accelerated towards the hull of the Ascent One in a spiral before crushing into the hull.
Then she was out from cover, flipping her ship to face the direction she moved in, turning her shield recharge rate up only a little so her forward shields could recover. The hull of Easy's fighter was pockmarked, but mostly intact. More importantly, its pilot was still intact, flying, firing one gun at a drone. Ronin was turning the body of his fighter so quickly from one drone to the next that it looked computerized, the precision of his sighting and firing was astonishing. There were a few scars from rounds that got through his shields but didn't penetrate his hull marked the front of his fighter. His was almost a point blank fight, with drones flying around him, trying to avoid the quick attacks from his deadly guns.
Without hesitation, Dame launched her Rapidfire drones. Armed with the best technology Haven Fleet could design into the clover shaped, thin ships, they sprung from her aft compartment and began firing their particle pulse guns at two targets at a time. They wouldn't last, they weren't designed to. As they chased their enemies, Dame lined up three targets of her own and began firing.
The first enemy she destroyed turned to face her as her rounds split it through the middle. It got a couple shots of, reducing her forward shields back down. The red indicator read 3%. When the first enemy drone was destroyed, her angle of attack was perfect for the second, and she caught it from below, blasting through shields with one burst, drilling a ragged hole through it with the second. Beyond it was her third target, and as her rounds ripped across its dorsal side, ripping through shields and its thin body, she lined up three more targets.
One of her automated enemies battered her shields with its pulse cannons. 1%, her forward shield charge indicator flashed. With a practiced hand, she manually shunted all the available energy from her rear shields, it wasn’t much, to her forward shields and she watched the shield emitters built into the smooth nose of her ship flare and go dark. One of her Rapidfire drones saved her, sweeping by, raking the enemy with a stream of white bolts. With its victim left burned through, drifting inert, the Rapidfire drone moved on, disappearing from sight.
Without the fanfare of sparks, fire, or smoke, Dame's entire shield system died. "My shields burned out," Dame announced, deciding not to offer specifics. It was actually the wiring. The overtaxed system most likely burned out as she tried to send power from the front to the back of her ship.
"Activate the shielding on your suit," Ronin said.
With a glance, her personal shield was activated. They wouldn't stop too much, but it was better than nothing. They would allow her to have contact with the controls of her fighter, surrounding them as she touched them. It was the best they could do.
Her backup inertial dampener system rattled under her seat as she jinked out of her course, narrowly avoiding a collision with an enemy drone. A moment later, the nose of her fighter was turned towards it, guns rattling two bursts, sending it to pieces as it turned towards her. There would be scars on the stubby wing of her Uriel fighter from the few shots it got off before she destroyed it. There was another target in line with her trajectory. Dame beat this one to the punch, sending several rounds through its middle before it could test her fighter's armour. Then, with a jerk Dame turned the nose of her fighter towards one that blasted the hull of her ship with a quick burst of a particle beam that drew a black burn line across the front of her cockpit before her rounds sent it spinning up into the Ascen
t One's shields.
"The Merciless has control of the Ascent's main weapons. Boarding teams will be here soon," Easy said.
There was gratification in that. The Drillers she dropped did their job, what she'd accomplished was important. A line of fire reached out from one of the larger drones, cutting into her cockpit canopy, nearly burning through her armour's shields before she could rotate her fighter with a jerk, blocking the beam with the armour on her port side. The pulse ended, and she tried to turn her ship, to get a clear shot on it, matching its speed and rotating her ship. If she was in an older Uriel, that beam would have cut right through her cockpit and damaged or burned through her armour.
Tangling with the heavy attack drone at close range tested her. Hand urgently working at the controls, her neural interface picking up finer, quicker instructions, she stayed away from the business end of that cutting beam emitter. The normal occurrence in such a close fight was for both combatants to get closer and closer as they danced around each other, trying to stay out of each other's firing arc. That was until one got a shot on the other, one of them was out maneuverer, or they collided. There was another way to break the knife-fight like flying contest. One of the pilots could break away intentionally, try to get a shot off before their opponent could.
Beating a drone in a contest of reflexes was uncommon, attempting it usually got you killed. Dame caught sight of two rows of grappling arms tucked under the thing, and realized it was her only chance. "Dame! I can't get a shot! You're too close to that thing!" Easy said.
"Line it up, and fire when I get clear," Dame said through clenched teeth. The strain of the concentration and work at maintaining her place on the drone's blind side was intense. As suddenly as she could, she turned all her thruster pods to port and turned them up to maximum, sending her fighter out of the close dance with the heavy drone.
Easy's first shots hit but didn't penetrate it's shields. Dame's fighter was already turning as she worked as quickly as she could to get the thing in her sights. Easy's second burst missed the drone. A second later, it was in her sights and she struck it with a full burst, blasting its armour apart and disabling it but not before it could pulse that beam weapon a second time, long enough to break through her ships' armour and destroy her port thruster. "They're like foul da'ku!" she exclaimed, recalling a type of bird that pecked at hamstrings, fingers and eyes until their prey fell helpless so they could tear them apart with their beaks. They were universally hated flock hunters, mostly because they liked to go after children and small mammals, eating them alive.
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