—
“They took the bait, ma’am,” Paul called out, “they stopped and now they are threading the needle very carefully.”
They had at least three hours before the ship would be close enough to communicate with. TOM and ADAM had reviewed what they could do and felt comfortable that they would be able to pipe communications through TOM’s ship, which was locked down in the corner of the Pod bay.
That was probably going to be a surprise for the aliens when they got a phone call from a Kurtherian ship.
Bethany Anne smiled at that thought.
“Good, let them come. ArchAngel, update all groups with the information and confirm our new Pod carriers are prepared to dock with them.”
Bethany Anne hit a button on her tablet, “Jean?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Did you and Jeffrey’s teams get the field expedient connectors made?”
“Yes, ma’am. They don’t work exactly like the sum-bitches that hit the space station for their team, but ours are a little more elegant.”
“Well, I prefer our method anyway. How many do we have?”
“Five at the moment, number six won’t be ready for about,” there was a pause, “six more hours.”
“Then five is what we have. Kill number six if you need the resources and move it around. We will be in a battle in three.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Bethany Anne disconnected the line and sat, thinking.
“Our method?” Paul asked.
Bethany Anne looked up, “What? Oh. Yeah, the aliens effectively jammed a hollow point into the space station and came through the hole. We are going to adhere a docking clamp and use some sort of special acid and magnetic induction and other miscellaneous shit I don’t understand to eat a hole after the clamp is affixed to the side. Our team then connects to the dock, and if it is positively sealed from air loss, they crack the door and will go in. We don’t know their atmosphere, but we didn’t notice any tanks on those that attacked us.”
“So, possibly breathable?” Paul asked, surprised.
“Possibly, and possibly they have something in their air that is poisonous to us, but our air lacks anything poisonous to them, so we shall see.”
“Join the space marines, go out, meet new aliens and … kill them.” Paul grunted with laughter.
“Wasn’t me that started this shit so rudely.” Bethany Anne replied.
—
“John,” Jean walked into the group’s setup area, lugging a large crate, “This is for Bethany Anne.”
She hoisted the heavy box, which landed with a loud thud on the table. John and Eric, the only other one in the room at the moment, looked from the crate back to Jean.
“And this is?” he asked.
“The start of her armor,” she replied, “If you don’t think she is going into that ship, then I need to make sure your head is screwed on properly.”
“Oh, I’m sure his head is VERY screwed on…prop…ah…well, uh…properly.” Eric faltered at the end as Jean fixed him with a stare. Eric scratched his chin, “It seemed funny at the moment.”
“I’m sure it did Eric, and yes, John is screwed the way he needs to be screwed,” she started before Eric put up his hand.
“Please, say no more. I’m just thankful the walls have some sort of insulation.” Eric grinned at her.
“Oh? You can’t hear anything?” Jean turned to look at John, “sharing are we?”
John grinned, “If you think for a moment that I’m going to hang my head in shame for admitting I uncurl your toes, then you need to find whatever John you thought you fell for. Because this one,” he pointed to himself, “made damn sure to smile all day the next day.”
“It was horrible,” Eric added, “his ego grew ten times that day. No jokes could wipe the smile off of his face. It was so painful to see him like that.”
Jean chuckled and walked over to John. Standing up as high as she could stretch, she reached up to pull him down by the neck and plant a big kiss on him. She turned back around and looked at Eric. “There will be more of that for him. That was just a very small, and very chaste, promise for later.” She started unlocking the latches and explaining what was in the chest, “This is the most I could get done for now. I know Bethany Anne needs ease of movement, and her bones are much stronger, so I took that into account.”
The two men crowded around her, “Sweet!” Eric said as Jean took out a new chest piece. It was colored in a deep crimson with a very faint vampire skull on the left breast.
“I have protection for her chest and back, all the usual spots but nothing special for her head, yet. This will all fit over her existing space suits and even over her current armor, as well.”
“She will be pretty armored, then. How heavy is it?” John asked. Jean turned and looked at him, an eyebrow raised. He put up a hand and smiled, “Sorry, I know it probably doesn’t matter to her. What’s an extra fifty or hundred pounds?”
“Nothing she will notice, that’s for sure.” Eric agreed, “Damn, she is going to look bad-ass with this. We need to get her a cool helmet.”
“No, this is just temporary. I have seen the videos of the attack on the station. When I get my hands on their technology, I’m going to rip it apart and figure out how to make one for her. I’ll have her locked in tight. Hell, I have plans. She can get tossed out of a ship and survive for a while.”
“Oh hell, can you imagine the cussing if that were to happen?” Eric laughed, “BOOM! An explosion happens as we are walking down a ship’s hallway, she gets sucked out into space, doing cartwheels and we can’t come get her. So, she is stuck there waiting to be rescued as we have to finish the operation. The cussing would be EPIC!” he finished.
“Huh, that’s an idea, gravitic movement,” Jean said, as her face got a far-away look. “You guys can’t fight without being delta zero in relationship to each other, or close enough. Maybe it would be sufficient. If not, I need to make sure she has some sort of special ‘come find my ass’ black box.”
“NOOOOoooo,” Eric whined, “There goes our opportunity to save her from herself.”
“Oh, just blow the wall ourselves and let her get sucked out?” John started nodding his head then stopped suddenly, “You know that shit would only work once, right? Even doing it for the right reasons, the next sparring match she’d make you pray for death.”
Eric shrugged, “Ad Aeternitatem, my friend. If that is what it took to save her, I’d toss her ass out in a heartbeat and enjoy the show. If I made it through the rest of the operation, then I’d worry about the ass-kicking.”
“Besides, Gabrielle would help kiss the ouchies all away, right?” Jean winked at him and turned to leave, “Catch you guys later.”
Both guys told her bye. John looked to Eric, “Gabrielle?”
Eric shrugged, “The first date went pretty well.”
“I didn’t hear you come in last night, come to think of it,” John said.
“That’s probably because you two were bouncing off the walls.”
“Huh, that could be,” John admitted and dropped the subject. “Well,” he grabbed the chest, “Let’s call the boss and see if she has a few minutes to try on her new clothes.”
“You know,” John mentioned as he walked down the hall, “She would probably just walk Etherically back to the ArchAngel if it didn’t take too much energy.”
“Just keep bursting my bubble, John,” Eric said, “just keep bursting my bubble.”
—
“Captain T’chmon,” sensors called out, “we are picking up a large ship in front of the gate.”
“It is what I expected,” Captain T’chmon replied, “continue slow and steady.” He reached over and hit the comm, “Kiel?”
“Yes, Captain?”
“Are you and your team fully loaded up? I might need to send you into their ship.”
“Has Royleen confirmed the outer makeup? Are the weapons going to leave us anything left to review?” h
e hissed in laughter.
“For this discussion, assume we only do thirty percent of the damage the calculations expect, what are the plans?”
“Um,” Kiel was quiet for a moment, “We would seek a breach and eject into the breach. Move towards engines and command deck. Remove obstacles and then figure out a way to cut the power for the ship. That would give us time to grab anything interesting and get back aboard and through the gate.”
“Good. Remember that, Kiel. The gate is our priority. While I don’t want to leave you behind, I will.”
“Understood Captain T’chmon, we won’t do any sightseeing,” Kiel answered.
“See that you don’t.” Captain T’chmon closed the connection. They were just solar minutes away now. “Weapons, are you ready?”
“Yes sir, we have a spread of two missiles first, then we will hit them with beam weapons. We aren’t a large ship, Captain, so I’m not sure how well we will do.”
“Me either, Weapons. However, they are new to space battles, I’m sure. I doubt they have much in the way of protection or knowledge of what to do. We go, we hit, and if I don’t have to send Kiel over, we run. If we can’t get them unpowered, I’ll send them over. Either way, we are going through that gate.”
“I wonder why they haven’t gone through themselves?” Melorn wondered.
“Seeking out the unknown is what separates the powerful from the weak, Melorn.” Captain T’chmon said, “And Yollins have always sought out the unknown.”
—
Bethany Anne walked in with her standard gear over her skin suit. “What is that?” she asked and pointed to the chest John and Eric had carried into her suite.
“Complements of Dukes,” Eric answered.
“Oh,” Bethany Anne replied, nonplussed, “Well, open it up. What did the madwoman create this time?”
John popped the locks and opened the case. Bethany Anne came closer and looked in, “Oh, come to momma my little babies…”
—
Peter Silvers and Todd Jenkins looked at Bobcat, who was smiling back at them, “This crate is guaranteed to cause unknown and untold damage to the enemy. The Guardians and the Guardian Marines should enjoy it.”
“Why is it unknown?” asked Todd.
“Why is it untold?” asked Peter.
“Um, untold because we have no stories,” answered Bobcat who then turned to Todd, “and unknown because, well, we don’t know.”
“Shit,” Todd answered.
“That’s ok, we will give you the stories,” Peter answered.
“Wechselbalg,” Todd grimaced, “Can’t get them to see past the chance to fight.”
“Marines,” Peter answered, grinning, “always wanting an opportunity to fuck up the enemy before you get a chance to fight.”
“That IS the definition of fighting,” Todd answered, “Fuck them up before you get screwed without lubricant. The best way to fight is to cheat.”
“Not very manly,” Peter replied.
“Not here to be manly, here to win. Overly manly gets you dead.” Todd answered. “If all else fails, we will attain fire superiority, we will move towards the enemy guns, and we will kill everything in our path.”
“I can fully support that approach,” Peter nodded.
Todd slapped his friend on the shoulder, “Work with me, Wechselbalg, the Guardian Marines will get you where you need to go and protect your back while we do it.”
—
Bethany Anne strode on the bridge, to sit back down. She liked the look of her usual black leather outfit, but these slick blood red carbon graphite pieces pleased her immensely. They weren’t noticeably annoying, although there was something heavy inside them. John said the added mass would be helpful.
Maybe.
She had her hair tied back and her helmet with her.
“Ok, Paul, ArchAngel, and crew we are sixty seconds from uncovering. Confirm final prep from all departments.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
ADAM, we good?
>>Yes, ArchAngel says we are good. The other ship has slowed down and is most likely setting up a shot. They are six hundred kilometers distant. She would have brought everything online if we had been attacked.<<
Good, I want my people to go through this as much as possible without overt assistance. It wouldn’t be good to let them understand how intelligent she is.
>>I will take that as a compliment.<<
You should, now don’t get a big head. I don’t have the space for your ego in my skull at the moment.
>>That was a joke, correct?<<
Yes.
>>It was a poor joke.<<
Yeah, you’re right, it was.
“Puck Defense?” she asked.
“Streaming now, ma’am.”
Bethany Anne waited. “I want anything they shoot if you can, to explode five kilometers out.”
“Five ma’am?”
“Yes, I’m told we are good for a direct hit from something of this class, but I’m not a betting a person, yet. So, destroy anything you can five out.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Bethany Anne looked around and nodded one last time, “Light them up.”
—
Alarms started shrieking on the boards in the command center, Captain T’chmon bit back an oath, they had been caught in a trap.
“Fire,” he spoke and a pair of missiles, already queued and aimed solar minutes ago, tore out of the front of the ship.
They waited the solar seconds necessary for the weapons to cross the distance between the two ships. The picture, which had been zoomed in, darkened when the explosions occurred stopping the brightness from hurting their eyes. Seconds later, the video grew bright again, and the picture showed the alien ship.
With no damage.
“Uh, sir?” Weapons called out.
“Again,” Captain T’chmon spoke, and another pair of missiles went towards the ship, and again the same thing happened.
Two explosions and no damage.
“Helm, ahead quarter speed, get within beam range, we have too many particulates in between us at the moment.” Captain T’chmon ordered.
—
“Second set of missiles destroyed at three kilometers, no noticeable issues with the shields, ma’am.”
“Paul, bring us around, I want to use the medium guns.”
“Yes ma’am, bringing ship around.”
“Paul?” she said, and he turned to look at her, “I want that ship, don’t mess it up too much. We still have one of our own on board.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
—
“Sir, we have movement, they are turning to face us,” called out Melorn.
“Smaller surface area to hit, perhaps?” said Weapons.
“Or, they are about to return fire,” Captain T’chmon answered. So far, their missiles weren’t causing any noticeable damage. The only way that would be the case … The enemy had shields.
“Sir? They have a second ship lying beyond the Gate.”
“They have WHAT?” Captain T’chmon replied, looking at his display, calling up a new area, circled. It was a black ship radiating very little and the only way sensors must have caught it was the obscured stars behind it. “Refine the images.”
There was no doubt that the humans had created this ship. It was ugly, beyond ugly. He grimaced in distaste. “They have no couth,” he grated out, “Find out what this ship is doing and why it is here,” he stabbed his monitor, “They might have no ability to create beauty, except for that main ship, but they aren’t stupid.”
He stabbed a button, “Kiel, prepare.”
—
Bethany Anne leaned back, “Fire, Paul.”
Pilot Captain Paul Jameson pushed the button. He had no idea that moment would delineate The Pre-Queen Bethany Anne and Post-Queen Bethany Anne Wars time period. While there were a lot of arguments in the future, no one argued that the first shot of the wars, all of them, were fired in her own solar system, at the Yol
lins who had attacked her, first.
The destruction was evident almost immediately. The metal slug had traveled over one hundred feet down the railgun's barrel attaining a small percent of light speed before hitting the left wing area. The puncture succeeded in creating a five-meter hole and causing the ship to skew jerkily to the side.
WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12) Page 25
