by C. M. Kane
Tannan’s fangs ran out automatically in shock. ‘What in all the gods’ names is that?’ He said as the massive black ship, cleared the nebula and made its way slowly toward them. It looked like a bit like a giant bird of prey. An almost arrow shaped prow joined a short thick section that connected it to the main body of the ship. The main body itself looked similar to a large pyramid with the top cut off two thirds of the way down. But instead of a level top, it curved gracefully down each side to the flat hull. Attached to the side of main body were two strange wing type structures that curved from the back of the ship to reach the top of the rounded “neck” section, almost like wings. Surrounding the massive ship was a thick, golden force field, which seemed to bring its immense size and color into sharp relief. Zeus and Loki stared with a mixture of shock, horror, awe, and renewed hope.
‘It’s something I never thought to see again in my lifetime,’ said Zeus quietly. ‘It’s a Dreadnaught.’
Chapter 29
Silence filled the screens as the assembled gods looked upon the slowly advancing Brightmoon. Zeus was the first to break the quiet.
‘I don’t know how or where she managed to get that ship, but it looks as though we just might come out of this alive after all.’
Loki started laughing. ‘The universe must love this woman. But where the hell did she find a Dreadnaught? She’s only been gone a few hours. And, more importantly, whose is it? I mean, I know it looks like the Ouranos, but the Ouranos was destroyed. We all saw that. Hell, we did it! It didn’t have those two odd tower devices sticking up from the top either?’ he added in puzzlement.
He looked at Zeus in surprise as he saw a ripple of red move across the advancing Dreadnaughts hull. ‘What in all the seven hells was that?’ Zeus shook his head perplexed; he was as shaken as everyone else. Hera interrupted them before they could comment further.
‘Where did you get that ship?’ Horror and fear showed clearly on Hera’s face. ‘We destroyed the only one!
Tae smiled lazily as she sat in the chair, her eyes closed. Her crew had told her what she looked like in the chair with her eyes open, and she had seen herself through the ship’s sensors. This would be the last psychological weapon that she would use on Hera.
‘I did tell you you’re a failure Hera. This ship was once known as the Ouranos, but her true name is Brightmoon. As you can see she is now fully functional. Brightmoon is yet more proof that your complete and utter failure has finally come full circle.’
‘I’ve destroyed it once, I’ll do it again.’ Hera snarled, turning to her captain and ordering him to move to intercept Brightmoon. Already she was ordering her pulse cannons to open fire, along with a massive barrage of long range missiles. After seeing the Dreadnaught, Hera was under no illusions she was now in a fight for her own survival. Any thoughts she’d entertained about not using every weapon at her disposal had left in a rush. Still, she had powerful weapons at her disposal, and she was against an inexperienced Terran, so she remained confident. After activating the missiles she ordered her Captain to open up with the forward pulse cannon array.
Tae swore to herself when she saw the missiles accelerating towards Brightmoon. Goading Hera to not use missiles had been a long shot and obviously her ploy had failed. She now had to hope the shields could take the pounding they were about to receive.
Claysal activated the long range chaff and interceptor missiles, when they met with Hera’s they took a large amount of them out. Still, the ships were relatively close in spatial terms, and the resultant explosions nearly blinded them.
Space battles were usually fought at great distances, this left a lot of time for strategies and planning. Tae didn’t want this; she was under no illusions as to how inexperienced she was. This needed to be over quickly, even if that meant Brightmoon taking some damage. For Tae this all came down to shields, hers had to hold long enough for Brightmoon to get into position. The big question was, whose would stay up long enough for the other to deliver a killing blow? Luckily the ships were reasonably close to begin with, only a few million kilometers separated them, and they were now closing on each other rapidly.
Tae watched silently as the first of Hera’s nine surviving missiles hit their shields, already they’d turned a dark pink color from the energy that Hera’s pulse cannon was pouring onto it. They immediately flared to a cherry red, then dark brown at the continued strikes, as the last missile hit a large portion started to blacken. She knew they were about to collapse; the Brightmoon simply couldn’t bleed off the amount of energy being thrown at her.
Steady, sweetie, she soothed the unsettled ship. We can do this, thanks to Zeus and his extra demands the weapons crystal has had time to fully charge. We just have to let her get a little closer while your reactors are still firing up, that way she won’t be able to out maneuver us when we open up. It looks like we might have to get hurt a bit to do that though.
Brightmoon surprised Tae by firing her port side docking thrusters at full burn for thirty seconds, the change to her attack vector, although small overall, took the immediate barrage of weapons fire from the blackened area of the shielding to an area that was still a light brown. Tae cursed herself, she should have thought of that, the change didn’t really affect their momentum or approach, but it did buy them a little more time. They were almost there.
*****
‘What’s she waiting for?’ Ares asked of the other watching gods.
Loki cocked his head in concentration and watched the advancing Dreadnaught. ‘Look how slowly she’s moving. It’s almost like the Olympus was when her reactors were just starting up back at the Pavilion of the Gods. If they are, then she’s going to need to get within optimum firing range so the Juno can’t outmaneuver her.’ He shrugged, frowning. ‘That’s the only reasonable explanation I can think of; it also explains why she kept baiting Hera. It’s as if she were deliberately trying to keep her enraged so she won’t notice what she’s up to.’
‘One thing’s for sure,’ said Odin, ‘that ship can sure as hell take a hit. Any one of us would be badly damaged by now, but apart from some scorching to the hull it looks like the Juno hasn’t made much of a dent. Her shielding is blackening now though, and they’re so close they could almost bloody well touch, she’ll have to do something soon or she’ll be gutted.’
Tae felt a vicious blow and gasped in pain, an unpleasant burning sensation began to intensify; it ripped up her stomach and across her shoulder. Brightmoons shielding had finally failed. Tae felt several unoccupied compartments on the dreadnaughts port side torn open to space as the massive energy weapon from Hera’s ship started to burn though the Brightmoons hull. In Tae’s mind she heard Brightmoons scream of pain, but the ship still managed to slam down the intervening bulkheads to protect those further inside the ship; she then ordered the repair bots to work.
Damn it! Brightmoon, I’m sorry, hang on sweetie we’re almost there. Tae felt the ship respond; it ignored its pain and once again concentrated fully on its job. Rainya looked up from his console. ‘I have her Captain, I’m transferring the co-ordinates to you now.’
It was time. Tae too embraced the pain she was sharing with the dreadnaught as she looked into face her nemesis.
‘It’s time for you to die now Hera’ she said softly, and then she opened her eyes.
She watched as Hera’s face went from triumphal gloating to terrified in an instant, as the reality of what she was facing finally sunk in. Hera knew she was about to die, and for the first time in her long, long life, she was afraid.
Tae’s eyes were fully black, swirling with the very same red pinpricks of light as Brightmoon. Tae and the Dreadnaught were one and the same.
She opened fire.
Tae had linked two of her most powerful crystals into the force field control, enabling Brightmoon to absorb most of the punishment that Hera was now inflicting, and allowing her to close the distance between the ships. Hera had foolishly relied on her weaker red crystals to protect her. I
t was a mistake she would not live to regret.
Finally Tae had what she needed; she aimed Brightmoons forward pulse cannon array directly at the Juno’s bridge. Brightmoon rolled to her side again, presenting Hera’s weapons with a small section of working, but brown shielding, just as Tae opened fire. One continuous stream of destructive energy hit Hera’s force field like a sledgehammer. As Brightmoons remaining shielding began to blacken so did the Juno’s, it came down to a race as to whose would fail first, Brightmoons held.
Juno’s captain tried desperately to bank away from Brightmoon, but in her vanity and rage, Hera had allowed them to get far to close, there was nowhere for her to turn to, the ship was trapped by its own momentum. The energy beam coming from the Brightmoon continued to slice through the side of Hera’s ship with remarkable ease. Crew and debris were now being ejected straight into space. While Tae concentrated on the fight, Brightmoon followed Hera’s dying ship, continuing to remain in a position where she had direct access to her collapsed shielding. Her pulse cannons finally dug through the hull and hit one of the ships inner fusion reactors, a massive explosion blew out a large section in its side from within and her force field collapsed entirely.
Still, Tae never backed away for an instant, nor did she ask for the Juno’s surrender. She kept thinking of all those who had died so needlessly because of the evil creature in front of her. She kept Brightmoons major pulse cannon firing at the ship, even as it was breaking up. It was dead, defeated, but still she kept firing. ‘This is for everyone you have ever hurt. This is for Tamuer.’ She whispered.
Always deal brutality with brutality of your own, and always make sure yours is a lot worse to make the lesson stick.
The Warriors code, she thought. She understood what it really meant now, so she grit her teeth and continued the onslaught unabated. She had to show all those here exactly what they would be dealing with if they went back on their word and attacked Zeus’ much smaller fleet. There was too much at stake for her to show Hera or her crew any mercy. Too many lives could be lost if she dared hesitate for even a second. She made sure she only used the pulse cannons as she had earlier taunted, leaving the other gods’ minds open to imagine what else Brightmoon was capable of. When she was finally satisfied she stopped and immediately ordered several small, unmanned bots to scour the remains of Hera’s ship for any possible survivors, slim though their hopes may be. She also sent several maintenance bots straight to the remains of the destroyed weapons section; she wanted that purple crystal if she could get it. When she was satisfied she had done all that was needed she turned back to the waiting ships and smiled coldly, letting them all see her swirling black, red eyes.
‘Are there any more questions? No? Good. It’s over now so let’s move on shall we? As Lord Zeus is still in charge I will of course defer to him.’ She turned to Zeus, biting her lip with sudden nervousness.
‘Thank you for your timely assistance, Tae.’ Tae noticed Zeus was watching her, his eyes half closed in deep thought. ‘I’ll expect you over here as soon as possible. I think we have quite a bit to discuss, don’t you? That goes for all the captains in the fleet.’
A sudden explosion came from Hera’s fleet and Tae watched as Thanatos opened fire on two retreating Khopesh class destroyers.
Apollo and three of the other Khopesh class ship joined him, it wasn’t long before they had obliterated the two ships trying to flee.
‘We gave our words, you spineless marsh dogs,’ a harsh angry voice declared.
Tae looked at the com-screen into the brilliant green eyes of a red-haired god she had never seen before. ‘Anyone else who thinks to break their word will have the same treatment. You chose to live by the sword, then you can bloody well die by it with the rest of us.’ He swung his outraged gaze to Zeus. ‘We’ll be over shortly. I have ordered my captain to destroy any others who may have a lapse in memory and try to leave.’
‘As have I,’ Apollo said, coming online. ‘Both I and my second are on our way.’ He, too, turned and walked toward the turbo lift. Thalia remained silent, staring at them in shock. ‘I will come, too.’ She said, looking at them with fear for the first time.
Damn it, thought Tae. Things were moving fast, a little too fast for her liking. She was now shaking like a leaf from the adrenalin surge of battle. Tears of relief and regret formed in her eyes. ‘As soon as I’ve organized the repair crews I will be over’ she said shakily.
She hadn’t missed Zeus’ look. She knew his history with Brightmoon and knew he must be wondering just how far she could be trusted, if at all. She hadn’t missed Loki on the bridge either, or the fact that he had been staring at her as if he were delighted to see her. Something she found both disturbing and exciting. She thought they’d probably be discussing her around about now; she motioned to Dolath who closed down communications.
What would Loki advise him to do with me? Especially after the way I left them? Tae was now in control of the most powerful ship in all the realms. What would Zeus and Loki try to do? Take it from her in all likelihood. Was this why Cassandra had warned her to not become a puppet for the gods
Maybe, she thought. She wished Brohan was here, she needed to talk to him desperately. But he wasn’t, so she had to figure out what to do by herself. She needed time, time she didn’t have
I’ve got to have a plan set in motion before I go over there, she thought, but what? She was pretty sure Loki would advise Zeus that Tae would be expecting him to try to take the ship. She also bet she’d be thoroughly searched when she got there. She couldn’t really blame them for that, after some of the stunts she’d pulled she knew she’d be searching her if she were them. This brought her back to her original question. What on Earth could she do? Luckily the ship was busy with repairs and wasn’t concentrating on her, she had no idea how she’d feel about her leaving for a short time. Brightmoons self repair systems had kicked into overdrive the minute she was injured. Tae knew the ship had its repair bots and nanites hard at work; the ship was even now drawing in material from Hera’s wrecked ship, the Juno, to speed her recovery.
She thought quickly, if she travelled to the Olympus she realized she would need to have Brightmoon position herself on the other side of the debris field behind the other fleet, so she was closer to the portal and a quick escape. She could always use the excuse of wanting to keep a closer eye on them. After all, if you took into account the two ships that had tried to make a run for it, it was a highly feasible argument. She also knew that every ship in the vicinity would have its sensors glued to Brightmoon as she changed course. They’d be desperately trying to find out what she was doing and why she was doing it. This way they wouldn’t be taking much notice of her jumper before it entered at the Olympus.
If she centered her plan on a room full of gods, then all she’d need was Tannan’s everpresent compad that he carried. She’d also need something hidden on her that would escape a scan. It would have to be something that would make everyone in the room unconscious, except her. She’d also need a ship she could get to quickly when she needed to escape. It couldn’t be in the hangar. She was pretty sure that as soon as she arrived the hangars would be on alert not to let her out again. They’d probably have her under constant surveillance when she was out of the gods’ sight. Tannan certainly wouldn’t fall for any tricks she might pull from their brig, if she ended up there.
Her eyes narrowed in concentration. With Brightmoon moving and distracting the majority of sensors it might allow Tae to piggyback a small friend to aid her, if her luck held. That left her with one last problem. If they tried to take Brightmoon from her before she was ready, all she would need was something to take out a roomful of gods and their seconds. It would need to affect various species temporarily, but not hurt anyone, yet something that wouldn’t affect her in the slightest.
While she was there she would have to copy and download as much memory from the Olympus as possible, to get information about this Felice Cassandra had mentioned befor
e she died. She also needed to update Brightmoon with all the portal coordinates.
Not much to do at all, Tae thought testily. The easiest solution would be to do all this while in the presence of the gods. That’s if they tried anything with her of course, if they didn’t then nothing need ever happen.
She sighed softly. Loki would have almost recovered from his nine hundred year sleep by now; his mind would be back to its full sharpness. Now that would be something she thought wistfully, trying to imagine a brilliant, complex plan that he might have to capture her. All she could picture in her mind were wicked black eyes staring into her own from above. The next thing she knew she was forcefully shutting down her pheromones again. With a snort of disgust at herself she got back to the problem at hand, she hated that she had become so untrusting. She hated even more that she couldn’t trust the gods, but there was no way she would allow any one of them to take Brightmoon until she was positive they would listen to her. They would need to take into account everything she told them about the Dreadnaught. If they didn’t it could end in disaster, not only for herself, but for her ship and crew.
‘Adam?’ she asked, turning to her second.
‘Yes Captain?’
‘Would you meet me in my room in five minutes, please? I need to discuss something with you … and bring Xirra with you, I think we’ll need her as well.’
‘I’ll get her now and meet you there’ said Adam before he swung around and left, talking into his com-watch as he went.
Tae turned to Dolath. ‘Open a ship wide channel please, Dolath.’
Dolath nodded to her. ‘Ready, Captain.’
‘Attention please all crew members of Brightmoon,’ she began. ‘It’s over at long last. Hera is dead. Your ancestors have finally had their vengeance; they can now rest in peace knowing their children have a bright future. This is all due to your courage and your will to survive. All of the realms are safe from her evil forever, thanks to what you and Brightmoon have achieved here today. I wanted to personally thank each and every one of you.’ Tae looked around the bridge at her crew with their still erect crests. ‘Without your bravery and courage under fire, or your willingness to trust in myself and Brightmoon, none of what we have accomplished here today could ever have happened. I cannot begin to tell you how incredibly proud I am of you, or how honored I feel to have fought beside you all.’ She smiled. ‘Thank you.’ She signaled to Dolath and he cut the transmission.
