Apex

by Aer-ki Jyr

  One of the six fighters took a glancing hit, but with such great firepower that small impact blew the side of the fighter clear off the ship. It spun wildly from the explosion and careened off laterally as the rest of the fighters zipped past the two ships and made a wide arc to reposition themselves for another attack run.

  The Resolute was situated port of the battleship, with its bulk standing in between the freighter and the approaching fleet as it opened fire with its heavy lachar batteries at range. Six of the meter-­wide streams of energized particles leapt out in blazing purple lances, crossing the gap between ships at near lightspeed. Two of the distant shots hit, and even as dispersed as they were from the distances involved, took down the shields of a corvette and frigate and chewed through half the corvette’s armor as an afterthought.

  The massive guns cycled through a five second recharge as their capacitors drew energy from the ship’s reactor with tiny sparks of return fire lazily hitting the battleship’s shield wall and puffing into nonexistence. The weaker lachars couldn’t maintain cohesion at this range, but the enemy fleet of twenty eight capital ships was closing fast.

  The fighters made another pass through, this time fore to aft, stitching the freighter with more green shards of light before moving off to avoid the free-­fire zone and wait for the capital ships to ball up and provide targets of opportunity.

  A large impact ripple manifested itself on the battleship’s starboard side as a MAC round hit true. The six meter long metallic shard deformed and deflected on impact, draining 7% from the ship’s shield strength in the process. Unlike the lachars, MAC cannons had no range limit, aside from accuracy, and packed a much stronger punch, though they also had limited ammo, which was why most ships didn’t carry them.

  The battleship’s crew quickly backtracked the round to its source and targeted it with six of the main batteries on the next salvo. The light cruiser took the impacts on its squarish forward pod where the MAC cannon was housed. The shields popped on impact and the entire front section of the ship mushroomed open from an internal explosion. The mid and aft sections of the blocky ship were still intact and functional despite the current explosion-­induced list, but its main cannon was obliterated and would not be getting off a second round into the battleship.

  The green, red, and yellow lachar blasts began to increase in number and intensity as the fleet closed within twenty five kilometers and began to maneuver around the battleship for a shot against the freighter. The Concordat’s main cannons systematically picked off enemy ships two at a time, with more batteries coming into play as their firing arc increased.

  The battleship had sixteen main batteries altogether, six starboard, six port, two dorsal, two ventral, and within moments all of them began to fire as the mercenary fleet surrounded the battleship and began taking direct shots at the Resolute.

  The first ships to come into firing position were the four surviving corvettes, the smallest capital ships in the enemy fleet. They maneuvered around the aft end of the battleship, where no main batteries had a firing arc, and came up behind the freighter, targeting its engines.

  Jalia adjusted their current drift angle. Both ships were currently ballistic for the next few minutes as they approached the jumpline, so with a bit of thrust she rotated the ship slightly and gave Riax a clear shot with the plasma cannon. The now white fireball, thanks to some recently installed Human components, shot backwards from the ship and hit the nearest of the four corvettes square on. He wasn’t sure if these mercs realized that the freighter was armed or not, but their attack profile suggested the former because the ship took the blast obliviously. It didn’t even bother attempting an avoidance maneuver in response to the Resolute tipping up to bring the cannon to bear.

  The extremely hot plasma didn’t have to travel far to get to the ship and burnt through its shields on half a charge, meaning the other half remained relatively intact and hit the hull burning a bright blue, dulling in intensity by the shield strike, and sank into the ship for a brief moment before exploding the outer hull.

  The corvette burst open at three other positions, each progressively aft as the remaining plasma burnt through the interior of the warship. The other two corvettes immediately backed off and down, trying to get in the aft arcs of both ships as the battleship cored and exploded the fourth corvette.

  The fighters made another quick strafing run, angling in and around debris for cover as they racked up a few more hits, along with several red lachar blasts from the retreating corvettes and a pair of frigates coming up and over the top of the battleship, one of which disintegrated by a nearly pointblank impact of a heavy lachar, the most potent and destructive range the weapon had, hitting with 99% cohesion.

  All around the battleship the merc ships were being taken out hard, but they didn’t relent and put as many hits into the Resolute as they could.

  And they were adding up.

  Jalia could see the numbers and do the math, and they weren’t going to make it. As soon as the shields went down they were done for. Her ship had no armor, and if they were intent on taking it intact they’d put a few well-­placed shots into her engine bank and they’d be adrift, protected by the battleship, but with no way of leaving the system, which she figured was the point.

  These mercs were willing to sacrifice themselves in order to disable her ship. What they had planned for later she didn’t know, but if they were willing to tackle a battleship then they must have some serious firepower en route.

  She just needed to buy them a little time and the battleship would do its job . . . but how?

  Jalia watched the holographic and flat screen displays, trying to figure some maneuver to give them more cover as the aft shields dropped below 40%. The bow shields were still holding at 78%.

  Her eyes glanced over to the battleship . . . a rough, blocky monstrosity with a slightly wider midsection than the rest of the elongated vessel.

  “Everyone hold on and watch your lines of fire,” she yelled aloud before contacting the battleship and quickly telling them what she had planned as she flattened out the Resolute’s angle once again and used her lateral plasma vents to move the freighter closer to the battleship. Their escort continued to fire shots over and under the ship as a merc battlecruiser tried to position itself with the Resolute in between the two warships to use it as a shield and blast away with impunity.

  Jalia took care of that quandary as she tucked the Resolute underneath the battleship and nestled up against the central bulge, using it to block any incoming forward fire, then rotated it upside down so Riax could use the plasma cannon.

  An odd transmission from the battleship prompted Jalia to give her headset to Ella, who was situated at the shield controls. The Cres quickly coordinated with the shield operator on the battleship and reset their shield dynamics.

  “Mooring beams, now!” Ella told her. “Get us within eight ketak and hold there . . . firm!”

  “What? We can’t use those with our shields . . .”

  “Just do it!” Ella insisted as she frantically made shield adjustments that Jalia couldn’t fathom.

  “Fine!” she yelled, not understanding but realizing they didn’t have much time left. She moved the ship in closer, bracing herself for the crash of shield on shield . . . but it never happened. The ships closed to within fifty meters and Jalia toggled the nearest mooring beams, finding no interference from the shields.

  Realizing once again just how much the Cres outclassed her, she did as told and locked the two ships together with two of the energy beams, latching onto the battleship’s heavy armor plating, then looked over at Ella’s shield schematics in dismay. The hazy fields surrounding both ships had merged together with the current strength levels reading at 507%!

  Somehow both shield controllers had used the Resolute’s generators to extend the battleship’s own shields around the freighters’ hull, mimicking its shape
instead of trying to super-­extend the entire ship’s shield out in a large enough perimeter to cover both, which would have diffused and greatly weakened it.

  What Ella and the battleship had just done should have been impossible . . . or maybe Jalia was just naïve to the ways of combat. Regardless, it was buying them the time needed for the battleship to finish off the rest of the mercs, who weren’t yet retreating.

  “Nice move,” Riax commented, walking up behind the pair. “Though you did take out my cannon in the process.”

  “Thought you’d prefer that to getting boarded again,” Ella said sarcastically.

  Riax smiled at her. “How long until we reach the jumppoint?”

  “Four and a half minutes,” Jalia said in the Junta equivalent measurements. “But we’ll have to make adjustments to our course in just over two minutes.”

  Riax glanced at the battle hologram as another merc ship exploded. “Cutting it kind of close, but I think we’ll be alright. Looks like the Vespa finally proved themselves useful,” he said, more to the galaxy in general than anyone on the bridge.

  The remaining five ships, now seeing that the freighter’s shields had increased in power, broke away from the battleship and disappeared in a matter of seconds as they used their gravity drives to get them away from the ship-­killer now that their objective was impossible to achieve. Sensors showed them moving off the jumpline and no longer in a position to interfere with their exit.

  “Get us free,” Riax said in Terran, then repeated in Esset.

  With a flip of three switches the Resolute’s shields, along with the added matrix from the battleship, disappeared and the mooring beams were disengaged, allowing the freighter to drift free and position itself for deceleration a few kilometers to port from the battleship. Both vessels used their plasma engines to make the pinpoint alignment along the jumpline, then nestled together with only 500 meters separating the two and the exact navigational line passing through the gap between them.

  “Here we go,” Jalia said, coordinating with the battleship’s navigator. Both ships were locked into a countdown where the freighter would jump a microsecond before the battleship and at a minutely faster speed, which would put it at the head of the diverging pair that would then reform with each other in transit.

  Jalia closed her eyes as her ship’s computer made the jump automatically, then held her breath waiting for an impact if they’d miscalculated. After four seconds she opened one of the green orbs and glanced around . . .

  Still alive.

  She leaned back in her seat, opening her other eye and breathing in deeply. On her sensors the battleship was 380,000 keets behind them and losing ground at 8 keets per second. Jalia flipped her ship over and kicked in her primary plasma engines, flying ‘back’ to the battleship while also correcting to the true jumpline, which her ship was veering off of since it hadn’t been precisely aligned. The battleship did likewise, thrusting heavily at a right angle to their direction of flight to make the correction.

  The two ships ended up side by side again en route on a twenty two day jump to the Arcad System, with the captain of the Concordat ship comming the Resolute as soon as they’d achieved stable drift position.

  “Hey . . .” Jalia said, relaying the message. “They’re inviting us over for dinner.”

  “Dinner?” Riax asked, thinking through permutations. He had a lot of work to do on the Resolute and these were still mercs they were dealing with, possibly with shady intentions. Get them off the ship, take them prisoner and secure the cargo for themselves? Maybe, but he could handle himself.

  Supposedly these mercs were loyal to the Vespa, and he was interested in finding out just what she’d been up to.

  “I’m always hungry,” he finally answered.

  “Big surprise,” Jalia commented. “They offered to send over a shuttle.”

  “We’ll use ours,” he said, slightly turning his head as another thought occurred to him. “I need to take care of a few odds and ends first. Anything more than two hours from now will do.”

  Jalia nodded and relayed the message. “How many?”

  “Me, you, and Ella. The rest I want onboard the ship. Assuming you want to come?”

  “Of course,” Jalia answered. “But what about her?” she teased. “You just assuming she wants to tag along too? I thought a Human would have better manners . . .”

  “Says who?” Riax said smiling as he left the bridge.

  “He’s in command,” Ella clarified after he left. “We’re his bodyguards. We go where he goes.”

  “Oh . . .” Jalia said, taken aback. “Sorry. Guess I should have known that.”

  “And he did ask, by the way,” the Cres added with a smirk.

  “When . . .” Jalia asked, stopping herself as she realized the answer. “You know, that whole telepathy thing gets kind of annoying for those of us who don’t have it.”

  “Tough, kid. Get used to it.”

  “Kid? I’m 36 cycles old!”

  “Like I said,” Ella reiterated as she stood and followed Riax off the bridge. She stopped halfway and looked back over her shoulder. “I’m 649.”

  Jalia’s face blanched and Ella walked away with a satisfied smirk.

  The Junta held her red hands up in front of her, turning them over and looking at them as if seeing herself for the first time.

  “Kitja,” she swore in a whisper. “I am a kid.”

  Chapter 25

  JALIA MET UP with Riax five hours later in the main bay next to one of the shuttles wearing a long black gown with an equally long slit down the left side that showed virtually the entire length of her leg while her tail flipped back and forth lazily through a tiny hole behind her. The upper half of the one-­piece garment was formfitting, with a high collar and extending down to her wrists, ending with a triangle of material pointing to, and looping around, her second finger. Her headtails were pulled back and held in place by an equally black band that had reflective studs built in, and her feet, when visible, were bare.

  The Human looked her over twice as she approached.

  “Too much?” she asked, seeing him dressed in another bodysuit, this one black with almost glowing white trim lines.

  “No. I just liked the gun belt.”

  “Don’t worry,” she said, pulling aside the slit in her dress and exposing more than just the minuscule lachar strapped to the inside of her leg, “I’m armed.”

  “Good,” Riax said, unfazed. “I don’t expect you’ll need it, but it’s always prudent to carry a weapon just in case.”

  “Where’s yours?” she asked, not seeing any obvious pockets in his equally formfitting garb.

  “I am a weapon,” he told her as Ella arrived, wearing full body armor.

  “Really?” Jalia complained. “I feel so overdressed.”

  “More like underdressed,” Ella corrected. “I doubt that fabric would stop more than a thorough gaze . . . if that.”

  Riax suppressed a smile as he picked up on their controversial mindsets. “If these mercs do turn out to be hostile, we’ve got a lot more to worry about than hand to hand combat. Their battleship can blast us to pieces on a whim. Well, maybe two whims, but you get the point. I don’t think there’s going to be trouble.”

  “I hope not,” Ella commented, glancing at Jalia’s figure once more before walking up the short ramp into the shuttle.

  “Come on,” Riax told the Junta, motioning for her to follow him up.

  Jalia stepped off the warm bay floor onto the slightly cool boarding ramp with her toes occasionally poking out from underneath the edge of her gown. She walked into the shuttle and the hatch pulled up, sealing them inside the Human craft. There was a tall central area, with a slightly lower forward section that served as the cockpit, she guessed. Behind it were four seats bracketed by two long benches extending back around an open area w
here she now stood.

  Riax slipped into one of two pilots’ seats while Ella already occupied the other one. Jalia walked up behind them and sat down gently on one of the well-­padded auxiliary chairs. She watched Riax manipulate the flight controls, seeing if she could make out what was what, which was difficult given the fact that he was also issuing telepathic commands simultaneously.

  The angular shuttle lifted off smoothly and floated out the atmospheric containment field with its shields already active, but transparent. No stars or light of any kind was visible outside the bay, as the Resolute’s shields were also active to absorb the intense radiation created when dim starlight met multiple lightspeeds.

  Jalia half coughed in surprise when the shuttle passed through the Resolute’s shields and bright neon dots appeared to her right, along with lesser ones directly ahead. To her left, the ship’s aft direction, there was nothing but complete blackness as the light of stars behind them couldn’t travel fast enough to catch up and be seen.

  “How are we seeing this?” she asked in wonder.

  “The shields filter out the higher end radiation while allowing the lower end to still pass through,” he said as he turned the ship to the right and the entire forward display lit up with oddly colored dots ranging from reds to neon blues to bright greys and, to Jalia’s enhanced vision, the turkest and orival colors of the ultraviolet spectrum, but skewed somehow to make them seem twice as luminous.

  “Impressive,” Ella commented as the shuttle rose up, crossing over the freighter and heading towards the bow of the battleship. Riax flew her parallel, along the length of the giant ship, then arced her up and over, coming down just in front of the starboard bow bay that they’d been instructed to use.

  Overlapping onto the forward ‘viewport’ a computer-­generated sheen was visible over the battleship’s hull, marking the perimeter of her shields just outside the bay doors that were only now opening.

  “Wait,” Jalia said, confused. “How can we see inside their shields?”