Francescan War Chronicles 1: Space Knight Denxeiter

by C. K. Pershing

  On the other hand, Aaltskog was the person most dear to him. In her, he fully understood what it was to both be loved by someone else completely and to have those feelings in return. While their relationship was one of lovers, he knew familial bonds could have their own powerful strength and that was what Valisia and Katashka shared.

  As Feln was considering this, the sleek form of the Artemis slid into position on the side of Denxeiter opposite Valisia’s Alden.

  “Well, you’ve got your entire harem together in one place,” Aaltskog said.

  “Be nice,” Feln said just before Commander Achren’s face appeared on his screen.

  “Hello Captain,” she said happily, “It’s been a while. I was so so worried when you crashed on— Oh! Hello!”

  Feln turned to see Aaltskog out of her seat and leaning over his shoulder looking intently into the screen.

  “You must be the Captain’s Companion,” Achren said pleasantly. “Its so nice to meet you!”

  “You’re right, I am his Companion,” Aaltskog said. There was silence as Feln and Achren waited for her to say more. When she stayed quiet, Achren cleared her throat.

  “Well, as I was saying, I was really worried when you crashed on the planet. I and my crew wanted to join the search to find you, but the admiral felt it best that the Artemis stay on guard duty at the defensive perimeter. He was correct, of course, but I was still very concerned.”

  Before Feln could speak, Aaltskog said, “You didn’t have to worry. Me and Valisia found him.”

  “I’m really glad you did,” Achren said, not rising to Aaltskog’s bait. “It was so terrible to lose Space Knight Nonn. You two are the only Space Knights I’ve ever known and it would have been horrible to lose you both so quickly.”

  Feln waited for Aaltskog to say something, but when she didn’t he said, “I really appreciate the kind words and concern. I’ve been meaning to get a message over to you to say hello, but we’ve been so busy keeping Denxeiter in working order. The admiral told me you volunteered to stay behind and help me defend the colony when the fleet attacked the base. Thanks for that also. But I’m glad you went with the fleet. The Artemis was obviously a key component in that victory and thanks to that, we’ll hopefully be rescued.”

  Achren listened intently to what Feln said and as he spoke, she absently touched the Jammer around her neck. Feln suddenly wanted nothing more than to throw Achren hard against a wall and have very rough sex with her.

  “Hey, none of that!” Aaltskog said angrily. Achren blinked and her hand dropped from the Jammer. The erotic thoughts Feln was having about her left, but the longing was still dissipating as Aaltskog continued, “I know you Nymphs live for seducing people. Well, you can just be on your way with that, because you’re not doing it to Feln!”

  Achren’s eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly before she suddenly burst into laughter. “Oh, you’re absolutely adorable!”

  Aaltskog started an angry retort and Achren continued, “No, please don’t take offense. I realize my choice of words sounded patronizing. But I mean it honestly— you are quite cute and your obvious affection for Captain Koenig is wonderful. I find that even more attractive.”

  “Uh, well thanks, I guess.”

  “As for living to seduce people,” Achren went on, “I freely admit it’s one of the things my people are essentially born to do. Sometimes I do it on purpose, but sometimes I do it without realizing. I assure you this time it was the latter.” Feln was glad that Achren didn’t mention how the last time he’d seen her, she sent out a blast of sexual energy so intense it nearly sent Katashka into an instant climax.

  “Sometimes when someone says something kind, and my heart is uplifted, I’ll send out my signals without thinking about it. I apologize,” Achren said.

  “Well, it’s okay,” Aaltskog said, softening. “And for what it’s worth, if I was the type to share, I would totally love to have you join us. You’re actually pretty hot.” She glanced at Feln with a look that said, You can fantasize about it, but it won’t happen.

  “Ah, so you’ve decided to commit yourself to your Companion, then,” Achren asked.

  “Yeah, although I sometimes wonder why,” Feln said, looking sideways at Aaltskog.

  “Then congratulations. Although I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. I’m alone in my quarters and was going to give you something special before the battle in the hopes of being able to go further afterwards. But alas…”

  “And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t intrigued,” Feln said. He squeezed Aaltskog’s hand, “But she’s my one and only.”

  Achren nodded, “Very good then.”

  “You don’t want to get mixed up with this guy anyway,” Aaltskog said. “I’m already in too deep and can’t escape. But you can still save yourself.”

  Achren laughed. “Well then I appreciate the warning.”

  A light flashed on Feln’s screen signaling that Admiral Kesh was about to address the fleet. He realized that during the discussions with Valisia and Achren, the fleet had arrived at the entryway to the final approach to the array.

  Achren also saw the signal on her end and said, “Well, I’ll take my leave of you then. I look forward to meeting both of you in person when this is all over. Good luck!”

  “You too,” Feln said sincerely and Aaltskog nodded in agreement.

  Achren’s image on Feln’s screen was replaced by the golden bordered window containing Kesh’s image.

  “Attention fleet, we will soon be entering the final approach to the location of the enemy’s array. Thanks to the information provided by Companion Aaltskog and the science division, we know that our fleet will be outnumbered and that the array has a powerful shield. As you already know, whenever possible, it is crucial to focus as much firepower as possible at destroying the array. I realize this will be hard to do while defending yourself from attack at the same time, but I have faith in the abilities of our people.

  “Please know that in all my years of service, I have never witnessed a group accomplish so much with so little under such terrible circumstances. I am honored to have such brave and heroic people fighting by my side and I am truly humbled to be in your company.

  “So with that said, let’s be on our way and open the door to our rescue. And when that rescue comes, we will then go about the righteousness of avenging our fallen comrades. That is all. May victory forever belong to the Francescan Star Empire!” Kesh saluted smartly and his screen went black.

  “You’d best get back in your seat and buckle up,” Feln said to Aaltskog, who was still leaning over his shoulder.

  “Right,” she said, turning. But before she left, Feln pulled her back suddenly and kissed her. “If we survive this, I want to get married.”

  Aaltskog nodded and smiled, “Fantastic timing. But yes, absolutely.”

  They kissed again, with the abandon of two people at death’s door. Aaltskog slowly pulled away to get back in her seat. “Alright, let’s do this together.”

  The fleet entered a large cloud of particularly dense gas and debris. Denxeiter shook as large bits of material crashed against its body. Even from deep inside the cockpit, Feln could hear the muffled bangs of the colliding rocks. It reminded him of the sound of driving a car through a hailstorm. Visibility was even worse than usual and he almost laughed thinking about how he’d grown so use to this system that he now considered the space outside this cloud as “clear”.

  Green beams lanced out of the haze ahead. Feln, who wasn't really sure they were even going the right direction found himself almost thankful for the attack since it was proof their course was true. The enemy must have been firing at long range because none of the beams penetrated any ship’s shielding and the fleet pressed on.

  Kesh gave the order to return fire and the fleet opened up on the points of origin that the green beams had come from. Since Francescan weapons packed more punch than the enemies’, the Francescans were soon rewarded with explosions barely vi
sible in the gas. The fleet increased speed to close the distance and soon emerged into an area of space where the fog and debris more closely matched what was outside the cloud.

  The enemy fleet was spread in front of them with the array barely visible behind in the distance. Feln thought the array would be belching out gas and material, but apparently it manifested the stuff a distance away since it was clearer near the array itself.

  The Francescans quickly swung around into lines of battle and opened fire. Red beams reached out for the enemy ships and sliced through them. The five heavy cruisers alone poured out such a massive amount of firepower that entire chunks of the enemy fleet were vaporized instantaneously.

  Red beams suddenly started coming at the Francescan fleet from above and below. One of the light cruisers was caught in the crossfire and blew up.

  “Sneaky bastards,” Feln said. “They lured us in with their weak ships, but are now using the better guns on our ships they possessed to get us in a three dimensional pincer movement.”

  Feln put Denxeiter on a downward course and came upon five light Francescan cruisers. Three of them kept firing at the fleet above, but two switched over to shooting at Denxeiter. Well, let’s see if this gun is all it’s cracked up to be, Feln thought as he leveled the giant weapon at the nearest cruiser. He squeezed the trigger and a massive beam erupted with such ferocity, Feln had to fight to keep Denxeiter from spinning around from the blast.

  The beam from the gun punched through the cruiser’s shielding and blew a massive hole in the front of its hull. Feln clenched his teeth and fired again, another violent beam blasting out of the gun and into the cruiser which erupted into an explosion almost instantly.

  “Damn, two shots to kill a light cruiser,” Feln wondered. “Pretty nice. But can you do something about that kick?”

  “Yeah, I’m working on it,” Aaltskog answered.

  Feln continued to dodge shots from the other cruiser, when Valisia’s Alden appeared beside him and loosed a barrage of missiles from its stubby wings. The missiles were all laser guided and at this range, the laser handily penetrated the haze to paint its target. All eight missiles found their target, the first few exploding to overwhelm the cruiser’s shields and the rest slamming into the ship’s hull. Like its companion, it exploded soon after.

  “I told you I’ll keep you covered,” Valisia said over an audio-only channel.

  “Thanks,” Feln said. “Now lets get the other three.”

  “Roger that.”

  Denxeiter was much faster than any Alden, but Valisia’s custom machine kept up better than a standard model. Feln held out the gun again and prepared himself for the violence of shooting. But this time, the kick wasn’t as bad, and the beam caught its target on the side where the ship was already showing damage, likely from when the enemy possessed it. Apparently, they had never fully repaired the shield there because the gun’s beam went right through the cruiser and the ship broke in two.

  As one of the broken halves drifted near one of the other cruisers, Valisia fired a shot from the bazooka her Alden was carrying. The bazooka’s shot hit the partial ship and it exploded, shattering the shields of the other cruiser. Feln fired again, this time with even less kick and the beam sliced into the rear quarter of the shieldless cruiser’s engine area. Geysers of flame shot out from holes on either side of the ship where the beam had passed through before the entire ship exploded.

  The final cruiser switched its fire to Denxeiter and the Alden but was suddenly punched through with beams from above. The two remaining Francescan light cruisers had come down to help with the fighting, and although were too late to help with destroying the other four enemies, their belated help with the final enemy in the group was appreciated. They also put a series of beams through the remaining half of the cruiser Feln had shot in two and it exploded. Seeing no other enemies, the cruisers departed on an upward trajectory, as did Feln and Valisia.

  “Good work with the gun,” Feln said. “The kick’s still there, but not as bad.”

  “That’s good, because I can’t make it any better really,” Aaltskog said. “It is a heavy cruiser gun, after all.”

  “No worries,” Feln said just as his small group of ships and robots came upon the enemy group firing from above. This group was comprised of three possessed light cruisers and two heavy. As Feln watched, the possessed heavy cruisers fired at and destroyed one Francescan heavy cruiser.

  “We have to take out the heavies,” Feln said to his team. “They’re the only ones that can hurt our heavies from this range and we can’t lose that firepower.”

  “Roger,” came the reply from the light cruisers and Valisia.

  As the enemy heavy cruisers kept firing on the fleet below, the three enemy light cruisers began to fire on the attacking Francescans. Feln dodged between most of their beams, but was still caught in the rear side by a well-placed shot. The Den Aegis cape managed to absorb most of the shot, but some still got through and seared the metal on Denxeiter’s back.

  Feln had to ignore the attack and press onward. Valisia was shooting at the cruiser that hit Feln. She was using the Alden’s heavy machine gun and laying down a stream of covering fire. Meanwhile Feln and the two Francescan light cruisers had gotten to the first of the enemy cruisers and started firing.

  Their concentrated fire eventually penetrated one of the cruiser’s shields, but it did so just as the cruiser switched from firing at the fleet below to firing at its attackers as new targets. One of the Francescan light cruisers was immediately punched through from stem to stern and exploded. The other light cruiser which was flying close by had its shields tested by the explosion but they held.

  Feln and the ship got closer to their enemy and fired into the area where its shields had gone down. The light cruiser fired its full broadside into that spot while Feln fired his gun. The enemy caught fire and started to lurch sideways, but just before it exploded, it fired one final salvo and destroyed the friendly light cruiser.

  “Well, that’s all of our light cruisers,” Feln said. He couldn’t help but keep a tally going in his head of their losses. Valisia pulled up next to him as the three enemy light cruisers continued to angle their fire at them, soon joined by fire from the remaining enemy heavy cruiser.

  “We need to get away from these guys and bring in some help,” Valisia said.

  “Yeah,” Feln agreed. They dropped down and away from the enemies. The heavy cruiser stayed where it was and returned to firing on the Francescan ships below, but the enemy light cruisers followed.

  Feln and Valisia flew down past the Tannhauser and Feln put out a call, “Attention: any units in the fleet able to help, we’re being pursued by three possessed light cruisers. Any assistance would be appreciated.” It annoyed Feln that he had to receive aid from others when Denxeiter would have been capable of dealing with these enemies alone if it were at full strength.

  While still flying forward, he rotated Denxeiter to face behind and fired his gun at the nearest enemy. Its shield burst, but it dropped back and behind its cohorts before Feln could take aim and fire again.

  “Damn, he’s smart,” Aaltskog said. “He can just hang back behind his buddies until his shields recharge then jump back in.”

  Luckily, the enemy didn’t get a chance for its plan to come to fruition because it suddenly exploded. The Francescans’ last gunship soared past the explosion and started firing on one of the other cruisers. The cruiser had some rear-facing weapons and returned fire, but the gunship evaded the shots.

  Seeing their chance, Feln reversed course and also fired on the cruiser while Valisia harassed the other ship to keep its focus off of Feln. Under the combined fire from Denxeiter and the gunship, the cruiser’s shields burst and the ship went up in flames.

  Feln and the gunship then circled around to the last cruiser and joined their fire with Valisia’s. For its size, the gunship spat out so much firepower that each one of its shots reduced the cruiser’s shields by around 20%. C
ombined with Feln and Valisia’s shooting, the cruiser was soon overwhelmed and destroyed.

  Almost immediately after that, the possessed heavy cruiser that had been firing down from above the fleet, exploded in a brilliant ball of flame silhouetting any ships in front of it and setting fire to any nearby debris. Two of the Francescan heavy cruisers had moved out of the battle line and flown up to attack their assailant and overwhelmed it.

  “That possessed cruiser was from our original fleet,” Aaltskog said. “The two who just finished it off were from the Uhlinder’s and newer with more powerful weapons.”

  “I hope that was the last of any of our own ships that were possessed and we have to see destroyed,” Feln said.

  “Well, based on what I can make out, I don’t see any more of ours,” Aaltskog said. “If anything else because the only incoming fire are all green beams.”

  “Or they could just have more of ours hiding to ambush us again,” Valisia said, giving voice to Feln’s concerns.

  “We’ll have to risk it,” Feln said. They flew near the Tannhauser and Feln put a call in. “Attackers from above and below have been destroyed.”

  “Very good,” Kesh replied. He switched over to fleet-wide communications, “Attention fleet, the ambush has been neutralized. Forward!”

  The Francescan ships moved out of their battle line formation and started flying toward the enemy, and beyond it, the array. Feln noticed that a large chunk of enemy ships had been destroyed by the fleet while he and Valisia were fighting the possessed ships. As the Francescans moved forward the order to fire torpedoes was given and at nearly point-blank range, very few of them missed.

  The fleet was lit up all around by explosions as the enemy ships were destroyed. Green beams still lanced out at the Francescan ships but most of their shields held. Some of the support ships that were bringing up the rear were hit, and although shielded, their protection wasn’t as strong as the warships in the fleet. The ships caught fire and started to careen out of control before exploding.