by Will Crudge
“It’s heading directly at our friend’s stern,” Furman confirmed. Ives just let a wave of dread to fade away into the comfort of acceptance. She knew what had to be done… and she knew that she was the only one that had to die doing it.
“All hands! Abandon ship! I say again, all hands abandon ship!” Ives announced on the ship’s PA. She dropped the manual microphone and set the ship’s alarm to match the order. The flashing red lights were only eclipsed by the pulsating light arrays on all decking surfaces, and bulkheads. Brilliant red and yellow arrows flashed in the direction of the nearest escape pod. The arrows were visible wherever the ship held the ability to support atmosphere, and she knew all her crew would be off the ship in a matter of seconds.
“Captain, I’m staying too.” Furman stood there like a statue. He was obviously rattled, and Ives could tell he was riddled with fear. Brave kid, she thought.
“No, I need you to pull Lisa’s node and get her to the Foehammer.” She waited for Furman to respond, but he seemed to be stunned by terror. “DO YOU UN-DER-STAND?”
“Y-yes, Ma’am!” He nodded, and then made for the AI node bank down the corridor.
“Are you going to do what I think you are?” Lisa asked.
“Just get into safe mode, and standby to be pulled,” Ives said with an emotionless voice. She was too busy flurrying her fingers across the control module to be emotional.
“Yes, ma’am, I’ve given up the helm to you. She’s not meant to be flown by humans but I think my GUI’s I left for you will work. Goodbye, my friend…” Lisa’s last syllable ended in a tiny digital squeal as her node had been removed.
Ives wiped a tear off of her face and waited for confirmation that all pods were deployed. She had twelve souls and one AI under her command. She let out a breath of relief. She knew that despite the odds, she would be the first on her crew to die—and the Aegis would die fighting with its captain.
Ives saw the intercept angle on her HUD, and the angles still held true. For maximum ramming effect, she began to surge power to the prow shields.
Red warning flashes kept popping up on the various displays around the ship. The hull had already suffered some physical damage from a previous skirmish, and the power distro was less than optimal but it would have to do. The icons of the doomed destroyer, and the cutter began to converge on screen.
Her eyes were filled with tears but resolve seemed stronger than ever. She tuned out the increasing intensity of the audible proximity warnings and kept her course true.
***
James watched the footage of the unconscious soldiers being hoisted up to the magazine door. It was slow and tedious, but it was the only way. James looked down at the image of David, and then remembered his face all too well. He was there on Clarendon Station. He and his crew had killed most of James’ fellow pirates, and the young man was filled with anxiety at the inevitable reunion.
Then an audible warning popped up on the HUD. A proximity warning. Shit!
“Steve!” James began to spout.
“Yeah, I see it too,” Steve said. “But that’s not all I see. Look!”
James saw what Steve meant. Escape pods poured out of the Aegis. Distress beacons were already lighting up their coms.
“Was she hit?” James asked. Steve wondered if James was referring to Ives, or the Aegis.
“No,” Steve responded. “It looks like our favorite cutter is making one last attack.”
“She’s going to ram the destroyer,” James stated as a matter of fact.
“It sure looks like it.” Steve noticed that James was already sprinting out of the CIC. He tracked his movements and realized that the hatch of the forward escape pod was opening. “What are you doing, James?!”
There was no reply. Just the audible sound of pneumatic pressure from the pod’s launch. He was gone.
“Well, shit!” Steve said. “I was just starting to like that guy, too.” Steve looked at the visual display of the incoming wreckage, which had once been a warship. His AI processing power allowed him to see it all in in slow motion.
The forward energy shields of the cutter must have been over-charged, because they were now visible without filters. The ax-shaped prow plowed right into the destroyer and cut it cleanly in half. The forward half of the destroyer was now wildly spinning in protest, and the aft portion was slung off at a separate angle altogether.
The bulk of what remained were now harmlessly spinning away. The Foehammer would survive, yet another brush with certain death.
Steve zoomed into the Aegis’ hull and was shocked to see that the impact had dramatically slowed its vector. The prow was a crumpled mass of twisted steel, and the superstructure was missing at least half of its normal mass. The sides of the derelict ship were buckled beyond repair.
After a quick energy scan, Steve could see that the main reactor was still online, but its safeguards were beginning to fail in a cascade of energy bursts. The hull was spewing atmosphere, but the life support systems were pumping in compressed reserves at a steady rate. He knew that if there were any survivors, then they’d be dead within ten minutes. If the AI had a head, he would be shaking it right now.
He began to initiate voice comms with the drifting hulk, but he thought better of it. The CIC systems were completely off-line, and the only thing that might still be functioning would be emergency lighting. All he could do was watch the tiny spec of an escape pod try and match vectors with the slowly tumbling mass.
Steve had no clue how James planned on even getting onboard the ruined ship, but after several agonizing minutes, the answer would come. James activated the mag-locks on the base of the pod, and then climbed out of the hatch with an EV suit. The young man was clutching another suit in his right arm, and he was lining the tiny thrusters of his own suit up with a crack in the side of the hull nearby.
It would be another five minutes before the shapes of two humans in suits emerged from the ruined vessel. The larger of the two suited humans must have been James, because the other person was obviously barely moving. The two eventually disappeared within the pod, and the hatch sealed once more.
***
James’ escape pod came to a soft landing inside the aft magazine door, and the door resealed itself a moment later. The hatch opened, and James emerged once more. He had already changed out of the EV suit and was reaching down into the hatch for something when David grabbed him from behind.
The hulking Soldier hauled the pirate to the closest bulkhead and slammed the young man against it. James was pinned against the metal wall, and his soundless scream indicated that he’d had the wind knocked out of him from the impact.
“What the fuck are you doing, you piece of shit!” David rasped. James could do nothing but let his feet dangle helplessly. Even without his powered armor, David was close to double the younger man’s size, and James supposed the captain could easily bench press a dairy cow.
“Stop!” A female voice bellowed out. David rotated his neck to see Ives struggling to crawl out of the pod. Her eyes were blood-shot, and she was covered in a myriad of superficial cuts.
“Ives! What are you doing here?” David sounded shocked.
“I got saved by the same man that you’re about to crush.” She spat blood as she spoke. “The same man that... saved your ship… saved you!”
David blinked in rapid succession, and then he looked back at the terrified young pirate. “You did all that?”
James’ lungs were still fighting to recover from being slammed into cold metal, and all he could do was nod. David’s face changed from a stern grimace, to one of gratitude. He gently lowered James back down to his own feet, and gently let go. The powerful man just slapped the shoulder of the cowering man and nodded.
“I’ll be damned.” Was all David said, and then he walked over to Ives. He gently helped her to her feet and gave her a quick look over.
“I’ll be alright, David. Just make sure my crew gets picked up.” She said with a wheezing breat
h. She stumbled for a moment, and David flinched with a half-hearted grab, but she motioned him off.
“Where is your crew?” David said with a confused expression. “They bailed out.”
“Why? You guys get hit?” David asked.
“No, big guy. The Aegis doesn’t get ‘hit’. We only do the hitting.” She smiled.
The Gloves Come Off!
Location: UAHC Battleship Hailstorm, CIC, Tangine Interstellar Port
Date Time: Post Interstellar 08/04/4201 2145HRS UAHC Standard Zulu
System: Sol System, Mid Region
Darius and Jep made sure that Kara was stabilized in the battleship’s med bay before heading to the CIC. When they had found her, she was unconscious, and her armor was devoid of any power. Jimma and Sasha had fared much better.
Val had found the War Master and her Zodiac another fifty meters further down the ruined corridor. Jimma was semi-lucid and seemed to be recovering from going into Primal Rage. Sasha was banged up, but her hardy Zodiac physiology meant that she was more battle tank than cat.
Jimma and Sasha were currently greeting the crews of the Aegis, and Foehammer down in the main docking area of the Hailstorm. The Admiral had ordered the battleship to reposition behind a debris field, in order to take the triumphant sloop back into safety.
Darius figured that the battleship would be slipping back into its defensive position by now, but it was impossible to tell for sure. He figured the mysterious upgrades the massive ship had received, must have included the inertial dampeners. Even the highest quality dampening system had a microsecond lag, and a seasoned space-fairer could pick up on the subtle shifts under acceleration or vector changes. But he could feel nothing.
Val lazily followed Darius, Jep, and the three Zodiacs down the corridor to the train system. Several Soldiers in a variety of armor and uniform configurations saluted as they passed by. Many of them had superficial wounds, or heavily scorched or dented armor. The bustle of activity was palpable.
The four took the train to the forward section of the mighty ship, and none spoke a single word. There was no need. They all had the genetic capacity to deeply meld their intentions with one another. The more of their kind were gathered together for any length of time, the deeper they all melded together. Darius’ presence, coupled with Val’s own superior gifts, made this connection deeper still. Conversations were pointless when they were all in each other’s minds like a homogenous consciousness.
Eventually they all made it to the CIC, and the flurry of activity within allowed them to enter largely unnoticed. Darius could see the Rear Admiral, Major General, and the Commodore all huddled around the command console, and the staff officers further forward were all diligently at their stations working with intensity.
“Marshal on deck!” A voice bellowed out, and the entire room snapped to attention. John rendered a salute, and Darius motioned for everyone to carry on.
“Sir, it’s an honor to meet you face to face. I only wish it were under less dire circumstances.” John frowned.
“Dire?” Darius tilted his head to feign surprise. “Our glorious Soldiers we’ve lost will not have perished in vain. All I see is impending victory.”
John shared a glance with Gordon, and then he looked back at the Fleet Marshal. Darius could tell the Admiral was a very pragmatic man and was none too amused.
“Hail the Crimson’s Fleet Admiral,” Darius ordered, as if it were a normal request.
“Sir?” Admiral John asked.
“Do it, John. Trust me.” Darius gave a confident nod to prod the man on to task.
“Very well, sir,” John said, and then turned to give the Commodore a nod as if to delegate the task down.
Several moments went by, but then the link icon showed that the hail had been accepted.
“This is Fleet Admiral Cornelia. I assume this is where I’m asked to accept your pleas for surrender?” A man’s voice came through with no small measure of arrogance.
“This is UAHC Fleet Marshal Darius, and yes. We will be expecting to accept your surrender,” Darius said with the confidence of a man who had already achieved his victory.
“Ha. Well, it would seem you robotic slaves to commercialism have a sense of humor after all,” Cornelia replied with a deep laugh.
Darius let his mind bend into the space beyond. His consciousness dipped into the endless stream of energy that permeated all existence. He was now fully aware of what was about to happen.
“Let’s be clear, Admiral. At this very moment you’ll be receiving distress calls from your battle carriers and troop transports that still haven’t made the gate transition… I’ll give you a moment to check for yourself.” Darius said with a calm tone.
“How…” The man’s voice shifted to a tone of uncertainty and shock.
“And… by now you’re expecting Commodore Zedd’s raid on Unum’s planetoid to go off without a hitch. But… It’s about to fail. Utterly fail.”
“What the…” Cornelia replied. All the faces within the battleship’s CIC were in shock too. They looked as if they all believed their commander had just lost his mind.
“Also, those false bio-readings on the ‘refugee’ ships, that your main fleet has been hiding behind, are nothing more than two strong divisions of Crimson Army regulars… How am I doing?”
“You’re already too late, Fleet Marshal,” The Cornelia said with a growl. “As we speak, there are at least five squadrons of heavy fighters that have already been launched from the station’s HAL’s! Soon their motherships will follow. Every major population center, industrial complex, and military training facility within the Sol System will be subjugated or destroyed within the hour! Besides you have nothing more than a single battlecruiser, and a decimated squadron of vessels left. I have one hundred cruisers, ten dreadnaughts, and three battle carriers tucked in neatly behind the refugee ship, and the hyper gate. All I have to do to order my fleet to push on through to their designated objectives. You’ve already been defeated!”
Darius reveled in the man’s words. “Admiral… I guess the Crimson strategists never factored in the hidden hyper gate between Forge Station and the Alpha Site, did they?” Darius said with a calm smile. “And I suppose the Chimera that was running the Alpha Site operations didn’t see the need to subvert the AI’s that controlled the drone fleet either? Of course not! Why would it? After all, there was nothing more than a lone battle group in training there. The same battle group that your sister fleet was supposed to destroy before moving on to invade the other systems nearby. Too bad a rag-tag squadron showed up… and given ten to one odds, still managed to smash the fleet to pieces… or perhaps you didn’t get the memo?”
“Nonsense, I will not be deterred by your desperate attempt at deception,” Cornelia spouted.
“Deception? Why don’t you sent a data burst query to your follow-on forces back at Forge Station? But maybe they’re too busy trying to fight off the onslaught of a thousand Unum cutters, and five hundred Unum gunships to even notice that a hyper gate just activated just outside Forge space. Maybe you should check on that.” Darius said with a steely resolve.
You could hear a pin drop in the Hailstorm CIC. Even the more forward bridge section was so quiet, it almost made its own noise.
Marshal, what kind of game are you playing at? This farce will only make things worse for us! If he takes his main fleet into action, then we have no means to stop him, John sent the message directly to Darius’ neural interface.
It’s no farce. We will win or die. But either way, I need to rattle Cornelia’s cage and drive him into making an impulsive decision. Right now, that man’s own ego is our second most powerful weapon, Darius replied.
If what you say is true, then you’ll be cutting off their only means of escape and force them deeper into the system. They may have an enemy at their backs, but they’ll have nothing in between them and the UAHC seat of power.
At ease, Admiral. You fight this ship. Let me fight the war! Dar
ius put John in his place but was thankful the exchange was one on one. Undermining a senior commander in front of his own staff was unprofessional and could threaten their already fragile morale.
John didn’t reply, but Darius caught a glimpse of an acknowledging nod from the Rear Admiral.
“Admiral Cornelia?” Darius asked. “Have you confirmed what I’ve told you?”
“I have, and I could care less!” Cornelia spat. “You’re a dead man! For all intents and purposes, we have you totally surrounded!”
“Yes. You do have us surrounded. You poor bastards!” Darius said it as a matter of fact.
There was no response. The line was cut from the other end.
“Admiral,” Darius said. “Unleash the Hailstorm.”
Raid on Unum
Location: CSS Cerberus, Medium Cruiser, CIC, Approaching Binary Black Holes
Date Time: Post Interstellar 08/04/4201 2155 Crimson Standard Zulu
System: Celeste, Outer Region
Commodore Zedd stood in front a large display screen that covered the bulkhead from deck to ceiling. On the display was a visual image of their approach to their initial target. There didn’t appear to be any changes from the initial images that the Cerberus has captured when Zedd was last in the system.
His acting skills had won the day, he supposed. When he was taken captive by the Unum Sovereign and their tiny group, they’d ventured deep into Celeste System, and docked at the Unum Planetoid. Although he was still upset that he’d been betrayed by the War Master he’d known as, Ensign Alba, he wouldn’t let his own emotions cloud his judgment.
He acted like the flustered and ego-driven Crimson Captain, which he was supposed to have been. However, his real intentions were to simply hide in plain sight. He may not have looked like his brothers, but he still shared their genes. All three had a close bond that had persisted for over three centuries. He may have only appeared to be middle-aged, but he had already looked that way when others had been born and long since died of old age.
