by Isaac Hooke
Cranston’s teleport device had recharged by then, and he appeared in front of one of the ships, cutting through it with his micro machines. He had to be running low on the machines by that point.
Mark followed up by launching a black hole into the wound, swallowing the ship.
The third pyramid came directly at Medeia. Mark launched black holes frantically, trying to herd it away from her, but the vessel nimbly dodged them all. There were so many black holes that Medeia, whose momentum was already low from her previous impact, started to be sucked backward, toward them.
“Uh, Mark?” Medeia said, her voice a mockery of sweetness. “Would you mind shutting off a few of those?”
Mark quickly fired dispersion bolts, though at the same time he created more black holes.
Jain accelerated toward Medeia, his velocity boosted by the black holes near her. He aimed his energy cannon at the incoming pyramid, and unleashed several blasts. It dodged the blows, accidentally veering into a black hole that was just forming beside it. As Jain watched, the vessel was swallowed.
“Lucky hit,” Mark said.
Jain fired his grappling hooks at Medeia as he shot past her, and his momentum slowed right down. But he had momentarily reversed her descent into the mass of black holes. Mark quickly dispersed the remainder of them, and then Jain released her.
“Well, that was fun as always,” Medeia said. She glanced at Mark. “Try not to get so excited next time.”
“Sorry,” Mark said.
“Sagan!” Hax’s voice came over the comm.
“What is it?” Jain said.
“We have four Mimics attempting to sneak past, toward the far side of the planet,” Hax said. “You’re the closest. I want you to intercept them, and make sure they don’t lay waste to the rift ships we have on the fallback point.”
“You got it,” Jain said. “Void Warriors, we have some new targets!”
15
Jain glanced at his tactical display, and began accelerating toward the four Mimics. The enemy vessels were well away from the rest of the fleet, including the Void Warriors, and were fast approaching the planetary horizon.
“Bastards snuck right past us in the chaos,” Mark said.
“Of course they did,” Sheila said. “We were kind of occupied.”
“Just a little bit,” Medeia agreed.
The Void Warrior fleet was down to twelve vessels in total now; Jain assigned the remaining Direct Reports between them so that they each had one. He kept control of the Warwolf for himself, of course.
“Xander, how are we doing on the intruders aboard the Talos?” Jain asked.
“They were starting to gain a foothold for a while there, but now that we’re away from the main fighting, I’m getting a handle on things again,” Xander said. “We’re good, in other words.”
Jain glanced at his aft view camera feed, and then the tactical display. The blue dots indicating the friendly units were turning dark with disturbing regularity; the red dots of the enemy units also turned black, but not nearly as often. Plus, there was a whole swarm of red that was turning away from the planet as he watched; the main enemy group, having identified the decoys for what they were, was returning to join in the fighting.
“Looks pretty bad out there,” Gavin commented, reading his mind.
“It’s obvious the Mind Refurbs are going to lose,” Cranston said. “They’re getting their asses kicked, and that’s only with a quarter of the enemy fleet attacking each battle force. When the main enemy group returns to the fray, the fecal matter is really going to hit the rotating blades. ‘Scuse my French.”
“Which is all the more reason why we have to ensure the rift ships survive,” Jain said. “Otherwise, there’s no escape route, and the entire fleet will be lost.”
“Well, they’re gone,” Sheila said.
Jain returned his attention to the nose camera. The four vessels had just passed beyond the horizon.
“Do they even know the fleet is hiding rift ships behind the planet?” Mark asked.
“They do now,” Cranston said.
“They must have suspected, considering there were none visible in our ranks,” Sheila said. “It makes sense that they’d check. They’d want to cut off our escape route at this point, to ensure a complete and total victory.”
Jain rubbed his chin. “Xander, how long can we maintain emergency acceleration, if we give it everything we have?”
“Not long enough to make a difference,” Xander told him. “Given the damage we’ve taken from the boarding parties. Did I tell you they breached one of the engine rooms?”
“No, you did not,” Jain said flatly.
“Yes, well, they nearly shut us down, but I repelled them,” Xander said.
Maybe it was for the best that Xander hadn’t told him how close he had come to being decommissioned, given the intensity of the battle thus far. The last thing he needed was more distractions.
He returned his attention to the tactical display.
“Mark, are you able to fire black holes?” Jain asked.
“I can fire a few,” Mark replied. “Four, actually. But then I’ll have to wait ten minutes until the cool down before I can launch another.”
“All right, save the fourth for later,” Jain said. “We might need it. In the meantime, I’m going to need you to place three of them strategically in our paths. Create gravity slingshots… give us a boost so we reach the other side before it’s too late.”
“Three it is,” Mark said.
The Grunt proceeded to fire a trio of black holes, one after the other, spaced in a slight zig-zag pattern ahead of the Void Warriors. Jain swung above the first one, which accelerated the Talos as it passed. His trajectory automatically curved downward, thanks to the pull, toward the next hole, which he traveled under. That one forced him upward as he flew past, allowing him to approach the final hole, which swung him down again as he emerged on the far side.
The other ships increased their speeds in a similar fashion so that they were all hurtling toward the far side of the planet at speeds they ordinarily wouldn’t have been capable of. Mark swung his nose behind him, and dispersed the three black holes before he was out of range.
“Nicely done,” Jain said.
The main fleet vanished beyond the horizon behind them.
“We just lost contact with the captain,” Xander said.
“Why?” Jain asked. “The repeater drones in high orbit should extend the signal without requiring line of sight with the main fleet...”
“Those drones have been shot out by the Mimics,” Xander answered.
“What about any repeaters or satellite radios on the surface?” Jain pressed.
“Also destroyed,” Xander told him.
“Oh.”
The Void Warriors crested the horizon in time to see two of the four Mimic ships go down. The alien vessels were attacked by two cloaked units that had been lying in wait: part of the flotilla deployed with the rift ships to protect them.
One of the remaining pyramids fired its lightning weapon and it struck one of the defending vessels; the bolt arced to the second ship before it could finish cloaking, and both ships went offline.
“Damn, lucky shot for them,” Gavin said.
Medeia sat back in her station. “And unlucky for us.”
Two more defenders, the Adder and the Blockader, a pair of Piranha class vessels, approached from the waiting group of rift ships, which were scattering behind them.
The second remaining Mimic opened fire with its lightning weapon, and struck the Blockader.
The Piranha had an energy shield active, like Sheila, and though the intensity of the lightning bolt was halved, it wasn’t enough to prevent the vessel from turning offline—sparks crisscrossed the surface, and running lights deactivated across the hull. Thankfully, the vessel had maintained an eight-thousand kilometer separation from its companion, so the lightning weapon didn’t arc across and damage it, too.
The Adder abruptly teleported in front of that pyramid, and as the Mimic dodged, the Piranha unleashed a stream of black holes.
“I wish I had a black hole launcher like that,” Cranston commented.
The Mimic managed to narrowly evade them all. Because of the close proximity of the holes, the Piranha was quickly being sucked into them, and had to fire rapidly to disperse the bolts. Unfortunately, while it was occupied doing that, the Mimic launched several blobs at the Adder, and though the Piranha class-vessel rapidly fired its raptors in an attempt to save itself, the Adder was unable to get them all. The blobs struck, and the Piranha disintegrated.
Jain and the others were fast closing, thanks to their previous speed boost. Meanwhile, the two Mimics approached the outlying rift ships, and began laying into them with their blobs and boarding party units while waiting for the lightning weapons to recharge.
Ahead, there were still a couple of black holes remaining from the Adder’s failed attack attempt.
“Let’s get one last gravity slingshot in,” Jain said. “Plot an optimal course around those two black holes.”
Xander did so.
In moments Jain and the others were swinging past the black holes in turn, and increasing their respective speeds even further, easily putting them on par with the Mimics.
Jain began shaking slightly. That couldn’t be good.
“How’s our structural integrity?” Jain asked.
“Holding up,” Xander said. “Barely. That final course change really put a lot of strain on the hull. If you had a human crew, they’d be splattered against the bulkheads by now.”
“Fun times,” Jain said. He stopped trembling as the forces stabilized, and he focused on the two ships ahead.
“Sheila, Gavin, Cranston, you and your Direct Reports, take the one on the left,” Jain said. “Medeia, Mark, you and your Direct Reports are with me.”
The two groups split up and headed toward their respective targets.
The Mimic was firing blobs at two of the scattering rift ships in front of him. The alien ignored him entirely.
“They ignore us at their peril,” Jain said.
Finally the Mimic began to divert some of the blobs toward Jain and the others with him. But their lasers had had some time to recharge, and they easily dispersed the ethereal projectiles.
“Let me know when to fire my black hole…” Mark said.
“Hold,” Jain told him. Because of overuse, Mark could only fire the one, so Jain wanted to save it for the time being.
Jain’s barracuda had cooled down admirably at that point, so he unleashed several energy bolts as he came in, forcing the pyramid to dodge upward.
Directly into Medeia’s path.
He realized something.
“Medeia, your angle,” Jain said. “You’re going to get lodged in their hull if you strike from that attack vector.”
“I know,” Medeia said. “Nothing I can do.”
“Mark, fire grappling hooks,” Jain ordered. “Latch onto Medeia.”
Mark did so; Jain did as well so that they were all attached as they hurtled forward.
“You think the cables are going to hold up to the forces involved?” Mark asked.
“Probably not,” Jain said. “But we have to try.” He was hoping they’d be able to drag her out of the ship if she got stuck in its hull after impact, but it was a long shot, he had to admit. Given their current speeds, the cables were most likely to snap.
The Mimic tried to dodge out of the way of Medeia, and Jain fired several energy bolts in its new path, wanting to steer it back. But the alien wasn’t buying it, and instead chose to take several hits to its hull from those bolts; the blast craters dug deep.
And then the three of them were traveling past.
Medeia fired a quick burst of emergency lateral thrust, and still struck the Mimic when she flew by, but it was a glancing blow, carving only a thin gash in the side.
“Damn,” she said.
“Well, on the bright side, at least you didn’t get lodged inside the vessel…” Mark said.
“Retract cables,” Jain said.
He retracted his cables from Medeia’s hull, as did Mark.
“Let’s start turning around for the next flyby,” Jain said.
As Jain decelerated from his excessive speed, he noticed that the Mimic vessel wasn’t turning around to pursue any of the still retreating rift ships. Nor was it firing blobs anymore, or boarding party units.
“Xander, did we do more damage that we thought?” Jain asked.
“It appears so,” Xander said. “Their inertialess drives seem to be offline. I’m not detecting the usual thermal signatures emanating from their center-of-mass.”
“Well, I’m going to accept whatever bones Lady Luck decides to throw our way,” Jain said.
He glanced at his tactical display. Sheila, Gavin, Cranston and their Direct Reports were still embroiled in combat with the remaining Mimic. The three of them had made little headway, it seemed. He could see the remnants of a spherical shockwave as it dispersed, meaning Gavin had deployed his main weapon, but apparently it had caused little damage. Blobs were flying between the Mind Refurb ships, and boarding party units were swarming about all of them.
The lightning timer above the Mimic reached zero as Jain watched.
The enemy fired said weapon, and took down a Direct Report that had lingered too close.
Gavin vanished from the virtual bridge a moment later.
“What happened?” Jain asked.
“Looks like Gavin was hit,” Mark said. “Never liked him anyway.”
“Good thing we backed up before battle,” Medeia said.
Gavin flickered back into view. “I heard that.”
“What happened?” Jain asked again.
“I took a hit from one of those blobs,” Gavin replied. “Had to reroute power. But I’m still in the game.”
“Looks like you guys need some help,” Jain said. “Medeia, Mark, switch course. Let’s get that bastard!”
“I can cloak again,” Medeia said.
“Do it,” Jain said.
She disappeared from the virtual bridge, and her ship vanished on his tactical display as well.
“Mark, take control of her Direct Report,” Jain said. He steered the Talos and Warwolf toward the remaining Mimic.
“I’m still ready to fire my black hole...” Mark said.
“Can you create more than one yet?” Jain asked.
“No,” Mark replied.
Jain considered using it for a speed boost, but decided to save it in case they needed the black hole in a pinch.
“Then hold,” Jain ordered.
Mark nodded. “Holding.”
They moved in as fast as they were able. The countdown above the Mimic was under fifteen seconds.
“They’ll be able to fire their lightning weapon soon,” Xander said.
“I know...” Jain said.
Blobs came at him and the other ships, and he dodged them or fired his raptors as necessary.
Fresh boarding party units began to attach to his hull; Jain’s stingers had stopped firing, since the railguns had exhausted their ammunition. Jain glanced at his slug status screen, and saw that Xander had fed fresh materials from the on-board supplies into the processing units, so more would be coming soon.
Too bad I need them now.
Cranston cut in front of the pyramid vessel, launching what was likely almost the last of his micro machines, and he got in some minor damage.
Jain fired his barracuda at the Mimic in his usual pattern, and once more it dodged out of the way, only to get hit in the second wave.
But then his energy weapon jammed up—it had already overheated.
Medeia appeared; she slammed into the pyramid from the side, cutting into the upper half and severing it clean off.
“Good job, team,” Jain said. “Concentrate fire on the base. Let’s keep this thing from fleeing.”
Medeia returned to
the bridge, and they opened fire with their raptors on the bottom portion of the pyramid ship. They aimed at the wounds Jain’s barracuda weapon had already caused. According to the blueprints the fleet had provided him with, he’d hit just above the engines. A few more hits, and the inertialess drives would be offline.
The vessel had ceased launching blobs, or boarding party units, so they didn’t have to worry about attacks from those vectors. It tried to flee for the first several moments, but the repeated strikes eventually wore through its remaining armor, and struck the engines inside.
“It’s adrift,” Xander said. “We did it.”
“All right, let’s leave this one here for salvage,” Jain said.
“The other one we left behind has already made repairs,” Xander said. “They’re attempting to flee at one eighth of their usual speed.”
“Trying to limp away, are they?” Jain said, mostly to himself. “Sheila, Cranston, babysit this guy. Keep a distance of seven thousand kilometers. The rest of you, with me. Let’s finish off the other one. Mark, when we’re in range, fire a black hole at that ship.”
The designated Void Warriors approached the fleeing pyramid. Mark fired his black hole, but the Mimic was able to dodge the blow.
“Whoops,” Mark said.
“I’ll fix it,” Jain said.
The vessel wasn’t yet firing back, but Jain was still reluctant to approach within six thousand kilometers; he used his current speed advantage to swing around to the front of the craft. His barracuda had cooled down to a degree by then, so he targeted the previous blast craters he’d formed in the surface. He concentrated on the area where the blueprints indicated the engine resided.
Because of its slower speed, the alien wasn’t able to dodge in time, and Jain scored several direct hits before his weapon overheated again. But it was enough:
“The vessel has stopped moving,” Xander said. “And its thermal signature has faded. It is being drawn into the black hole.”
“It’s going to take ten minutes at this rate,” Mark said.
“That’s all right,” Jain said. “We’ll watch. I’ll give it the occasional nudge with my barracuda until then.”
