Francescan War Chronicles 1: Space Knight Denxeiter

by C. K. Pershing

“Good luck, Captain,” the gunship commander said.

  “You too. What’s your name?”

  “Vonnen, sir.” A window opened on Feln’s screen showing the face with the voice. It was the insectoid face of one of the Bkilo. The Bkilo were notable as being the first non-human race to join the Francescan Empire and its allies in the Quadruple Alliance in the Great Wystran War. Two Bkilo had been close friends of Emperor Gustav II. The green pendant on Vonnen’s uniform glowed as he spoke, translating the creature’s language of clicks into Wystran Standard.

  “Well, Vonnen, it’s good to meet you. I’ve never met a Bkilo before but I’m happy to say I’ve now fought at one’s side. Take care, both of you.” Before Vonnen or Valisia could say anything, Feln turned off his comms.

  “It’s just us,” he said to Aaltskog as he throttled toward the group of large ships. He looked back to see G-799 and Valisia’s Alden get to work fighting the smaller enemy ships. “I’m glad they didn’t try to follow us.”

  “I think they knew it was time to say goodbye,” Aaltskog said.

  Red beams from the Francescan fleet crisscrossed with the green beams from the enemy. There was still a power differential between the firepower of the two forces. The enemy ships, although the size of Francescan battleships, had firepower equal to that of a Francescan heavy cruiser. However, sheer numbers were telling and the Francescan shields were starting to give way.

  “The Tann’s Wave Blaster is gonna need time to charge,” Aaltskog said. “She’ll still have her normal guns, but I don’t think they’ll do much good against so many baddies.”

  “Then we have to draw some of the enemies’ fire,” Feln answered.

  Denxeiter screamed toward the first ship in the enemy battle line and Feln started firing with his gun. Unlike the previous enemies he’d fought, the gun didn’t register as much damage to the shields of the large enemy ship.

  “Each shot is only taking off 10% from their shields,” Aaltskog said.

  “Yeah, but are they still shooting at the fleet?” Feln asked just as the ship started firing a massive array of beams at Denxeiter.

  “There’s your answer,” Aaltskog said.

  “Well, at least that’s one less ship our side will have to worry about.”

  Feln stayed as close as possible to the ship and kept squeezing off shots. Unlike Denxeiter’s normal pistols that fired as fast as he could pull the trigger, this gun required almost three seconds between each shot, an eternity in high speed combat.

  A warning klaxon went off and Feln looked over to see a stream of torpedoes heading toward the alien ship. The two remaining corvettes in the fleet had taken the chance to fire them while Feln was drawing the ship’s fire.

  With full navigation and sensors restored, the torpedoes’ targeting systems were functioning perfectly. Their targeting computers aimed them where the ship’s shields were weakest, even if it was a difference of only .01% in strength. Feln pulled up just as the ship exploded from the spread of torpedoes.

  He was just about to cheer when the three ships behind the one that had just been destroyed shifted all their fire toward the corvettes and obliterated the little ships in a criss cross of beams that were impossible to escape.

  “Those were our last corvettes,” Feln said.

  The two remaining Francescan heavy cruisers moved away from the Tannhauser, drawing the fire of most of the enemy ships. Just as Feln was moving toward his next target, one of the heavy cruisers exploded from the onslaught of enemy fire.

  “Dammit, they’re sacrificing themselves,” Feln said.

  “Kinda like us,” Aaltskog said, and absurdly, Feln could hear a smile in her voice.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” he said with a chuckle. “Still, we’re just two people. All the families of those crews…”

  The other heavy cruiser kept going forward, firing all the way up to the moment its nose almost slammed into the side of one of the enemy ships. The cruiser swung around and fired a broadside directly into the ship’s hull. Its shields burst and the ship exploded, bursting the cruiser’s shields at the same time. The remaining enemy ships, save the one Feln was fighting, all opened fire on the cruiser and vaporized it.

  “We’ve gotta do something or there won’t be a fleet to save,” Feln said as the last of the heavy cruisers was gone. He rocketed skyward and spun Denxeiter over to have it come screaming back down. “Burst Slammer!” he yelled. Segments of Denxeiter’s chest opened and a massive energy beam as big around as Denxeiter’s torso that grew larger as it went blasted out and hit the alien ship square in its center. Its shield burst and the ship broke in half. As the segments on Denxeiter’s chest closed, Feln fired shots into the halves of the ship. He was rewarded with both exploding into balls of orange flame.

  “Thank God that worked,” Feln said. “You said it only had a 10% chance of working, right?”

  “Yeah, and considering that was only 25% strength, it’s too damn bad we can’t use it again,” Aaltskog said.

  The enemy ships had started to move in toward the Tannhauser. The only other warship left besides the Tannhauser and G-799 was a lone destroyer that bravely placed itself between the carrier and the enemies.

  The little ship and the Tannhauser fired at the enemy closest to them and were joined by the three home guard planes. The little spacecraft swooped in and smashed into the large ship, weakening its shields slightly. They knew that collision would do more damage than their guns and it was still a pointless sacrifice, Feln thought.

  Just then more beams joined those from the Tannhauser and the destroyer. They were from the support ships.

  “They weren’t supposed to shoot!” Feln said. He watched as just as with the colony, the enemy now saw the support ships as threats and shifted some of their fire over to them. The support ships not only had their crews on board, but were also housing the colonists that had left the colony before it was destroyed. “This is an even bigger bloodbath than it would have been otherwise.”

  Enemy beams began to puncture some of the support ships and they exploded taking entire families with them. Seeing this, G-799 and Valisia pulled away from their fight and flew up to help the support ships against the enemy. Soon, they too began to take damage.

  “No!” Feln cried. He made an anguished sound and pushed Denxeiter into a spiraling suicidal dive toward the lead ship. The explosion of a Hyper Battle Machine would easily take out some of the enemy ships, hopefully giving the remaining Francescan ships a long enough reprieve for help to arrive. There was the slight possibility that something similar to the Resonance effect he experienced before could be achieved and he could somehow still save the fleet without dying, but there were no guarantees.

  “Darling, I’m gonna go for it, but we’ll probably die,” he said.

  “I know. It’s time to take this all the way!” Aaltskog yelled above the roar of Denxeiter’s engine as the dive gained speed.

  “You’d better believe it!” Feln yelled back and he suddenly felt giddy. The two of them virtually screamed defiant laughter as the enemy ship loomed ever closer at a speed Denxeiter had never before achieved. Feln reached his hand back over his shoulder and Aaltskog took it. The enemy filled Feln’s view screen and he was just about to slam into its nose when everything went bright.

  The blinding light he experienced before splashed over Feln and he felt his body go numb. He clenched his teeth and squeezed Aaltskog’s hand as long as he could before he lost feeling and his sight was bathed in a light so bright that even as he squeezed his eyelids shut, his eyes still burned. I hope this works!

  Chapter Six

  All of the noise was suddenly gone and everything was completely quiet. The light settled down just as Feln thought his eyes would catch fire and he could feel his senses returning, but at a dulled state. He very carefully opened his eyes to find himself in a room with classical marble architecture. He was sitting in an old wood chair with ornate carvings. Sitting next to him asleep in a similar chair was Aalts
kog, her head buried slumped against her chest as she breathed gently. Feln reached over to wake her up.

  “Don’t wake her,” a soft female voice said.

  Feln jerked his hand back in surprise. “Who are you? Where are we?”

  A woman in her early twenties materialized in front of Feln. “I think you know the answer to both of those questions,” she said with a kind smile.

  “You’re Lila Aliss, Denxeiter’s first pilot.” Feln said. He looked around. “We’re inside Denxeiter’s Resonance state.”

  “Yes.”

  Two men appeared next to Aliss. Feln recognized them as Johnny Vogel and Gerard Caron, Denxeiter’s other two pilots before he received the mantle.

  “I assume time has frozen because we were just about to plow into that enemy ship before we came here,” Feln said. “Well, unless we did die and this is the afterlife. If it is, it’s not what I expected.”

  Vogel laughed. “Nah, this ain’t the afterlife. But you knew that. Time ain’t stopped, it’s just goin’ really sloooow.”

  Caron cringed as Vogel spoke. Feln knew all their histories. Space Knights were all very famous anyway, but he made it a point to know his forebears best. Aliss was from the Francescan capital city of Galarisa from a middle-class family. And whereas Vogel had grown up dirt poor on a desert backwater, Caron came from a wealthy merchant family and had an upbringing that saw him make friends with nobility.

  In stark contrast to Vogel’s “earthy” delivery, Caron’s was as smooth as silk. “We are in fact, existing at a speed of approximately 1/5,000,000 of a second. But yes, for all intents and purposes, time has stopped compared to what is happening in real-time.”

  “So have you all been trapped here since you attained Resonance? Are Aaltskog and I trapped here too?”

  “To answer your first question, we’re not trapped exactly,” Aliss said. “When we achieved Resonance, each of us died in the process. Our souls departed. But we leave an imprint behind and that’s what you’re speaking with now. I am Lila Aliss, but I’m not.”

  “Aaltskog’s the key to this, as always,” Feln said. “She’s what’s keeping the two of us alive.”

  “Yep,” Vogel said. “You wake her up, you come out of it. She’s your tie to normal time. You remember before, how she kept you from total Resonance. She’s doin’ it again.”

  Feln noticed that Caron’s expression got more pained with every passing moment as Vogel spoke. Vogel did too. He smiled at Caron, “Relax kid, we only get to talk when somebody comes in. The last time it happened was when you showed up.”

  Caron rolled his eyes, “I’m only happy the real me died and doesn't have to listen to this assault on the ears.”

  “So really, why are we here?” Feln said. “Why did this happen to you? Is Denxeiter cursed? Because if Aaltskog wasn’t able to be my anchor to life, Denxeiter would be four for four at making its pilots disappear.” He paused. “And honestly, I find it kinda scary that this process kills the pilot.”

  Three chairs materialized near Feln and the three others sat down. Aliss smiled. “I’ve been here the longest, but as Captain Vogel said, we only exist as consciouses when a Space Knight reaches Resonance and comes here. The rest of the time passes without us experiencing it. The time flows at a different rate when a full Resonance occurs. The pilot dies instantly, but we have a few ‘days’ together here before our consciouses disappear again, waiting for another to arrive.”

  “Okay, but that doesn’t answer my questions.”

  “The point I was coming to was that when you add the three of us together, we don’t have much experience in here. I was here for a few ‘days’. Johnny’s arrival brought some more, then Captain Caron’s. So really, we’ve only had about a week and a half together of consciousness. During that time, we haven’t been able to find out much.”

  “Interestingly enough, your arrival is the one that has revealed the most to us,” Caron said.

  “Because of Aaltskog?” Feln asked.

  “Yeah, that kid’s holding the door open and we were able to kinda look outside a little bit when you came in.” Vogel said. “By the way, why does your girl look like a kid? My girl was a hot blonde with legs that went on forever.” He glanced at Aliss, “Ah sorry.”

  Aliss laughed, “Don’t mind me, that description applied to my Companion too.”

  “My Companion was the most gentle creature,” Caron said. “A lady that would make angels jealous in beauty and demeanor.”

  Feln was terrified of what was to inevitably come next: they would ask what happened to their Companions. Feln knew. And he didn't want to tell them about how they killed themselves in truly painful ways.

  The others must have all seen something in his expression though, because nobody asked. And thankfully nobody forced the issue on Aaltskog’s appearance, because his questions were more pressing.

  Then he glanced at Aaltskog and for an instant she looked different. She was taller, and looked more mature— like her true age. She was more beautiful than ever. He blinked and it was gone.

  He looked back at the other three. Vogel smiled. “You saw the real her, huh?”

  “I think so, but it was so fast.”

  “It’s because she’s existing in two time-frames at once— in some ways, two realities,” Caron said. “In here, an area of almost pure consciousness, you can occasionally detect her true mind and its true age. But a part of your physical essences have also come along, so that’s why you see her as you know her in real-time.”

  “It’s also based on what’s familiar to you,” Aliss said. “You see her like this all the time, but you know there’s more to her. Just now, you saw her with your soul.”

  Feln shook his head. “I follow, but this is still getting pretty deep.”

  The other three nodded. “Well, strange things are to be expected when entering the Machine. Back to your questions, to answer them slightly out of order, no, Denxeiter isn’t cursed.” Aliss said.

  “It’s just no other Hyper Battle Machine has this rate of Resonance.”

  “That’s because no other Hyper Battle Machine is as well-made as Denxeiter,” Caron said.

  “Well, I wouldn’t call a Machine that kills its pilots very well-made,” Feln retorted. “And your opinion about our Machine is probably biased.”

  “Nah, that’s the thing, a Hyper Battle Machine— if it was perfect— would be able to hit Resonance every single time it was needed and bring its pilot back safe.” Vogel said. “But we ain’t anywhere near that in technology. ‘Leastways we weren’t when I was around.”

  “We still aren’t and we’re up to number 115.” Feln said. “So you’re saying that if a Hyper Battle Machine was truly perfect, the pilot would hop in, just hit Resonance, kill everything around him in some kind of super mode, and come back out of it safely before the enemy knew what hit him?”

  All three nodded.

  “That sounds like some kind of God-Mode in a video game,” Feln said.

  “Deus Ex Machina and all that,” Caron said.

  “So okay, I get what you’re saying,” Feln said. “Denxeiter is just trying to do what a Hyper Battle Machine is supposed to do. So why does it keep failing?”

  “Because there’s usually a kink in the triumvirate,” Aliss said. “You have the Machine, the Knight, and the Companion.”

  “The Companions have always been the weak link…” Feln said slowly.

  “Yes,” Caron said. “As perfect as my Angelique was, I have to admit that compared to your Companion, she was a simple automaton.” The other two nodded their agreement.

  “Your girl there, she’s pretty damn close to what’s needed. If our guys can ever figure out how to make more like her and really get the formula perfected, the Old Bastards better watch the hell out, because we’d murder ‘em without breakin’ a sweat,” Vogel said.

  “The ‘Old Bastards’?” Feln asked.

  “He means the Ancient Enemy,” Caron sighed.

  “Oh.
Well, yeah, I can’t argue with that. Just that little taste of Resonance I had before allowed me to stop that monster they threw at us. I’d imagine being able to do something like that all the time would be pretty devastating.”

  “So to answer your other questions,” Aliss said, “This happened to us because we’re simply the leftover imprints of our true selves in the other dimensional aspect of Denxeiter’s main computer— his subconscious ‘mind’ as it were. As for why we’re here, we think it’s because Denxeiter has to store an imprint of us in his mind to best be in tune when we achieve Resonance.”

  “Kinda like saving your user preferences,” Vogel said.

  “We believe Denxeiter brings the Space Knight into this part of his mind instantaneously when Resonance is achieved and makes the imprint. The Space Knight isn’t supposed to notice it— instead the Space Knight is supposed to only have an experience similar to what happened to you before.

  “With us, the imprint was made, but our Companions were unable to keep us anchored. So our bodies were destroyed during the imprint process. The pilot isn’t even supposed to know this place exists.”

  “And before you ask, we don’t know why the place looks like it does either,” Caron said. “It was very specifically designed to look like a room with classical architecture. Even the chairs were meant to look like that.”

  “I thought you were going to say it’s how my brain is processing the information into something I’ll understand,” Feln said.

  “Yeah, you’d think that,” Vogel said. “But you’d be wrong. For whatever reason, this room is made this way deliberately.”

  “Huh. Well, so you’re saying that the pilot isn’t even supposed to remember this part of the Resonance process during the imprint. We’re supposed to only experience that high speed like I did before.”

  They nodded.

  “But Aaltskog said that wasn’t true Resonance, only a very close fraction of it. Like there was .0001% or something like that. So what is true Resonance? This? Or the time thing?”

  “This is gonna sound really pretentious,” Vogel said, “but the answer is neither and both.”