“Plenty,” she replied, checking out the ship just for her own sanity. The chance of anything being amiss was infinitesimally small. “Try Dipshit for one, maybe Bootlicker for another, and I haven’t started with anything that starts with twit, twat, or cock.”
“Have I mentioned that your concept of call signs has a bell-curve breaking amount of gutter words?”
“I know, do you like them?” she chuckled.
“Why would I like them? I have researched plenty of proper names for a call-sign, and I haven’t found many starting with the words you mentioned.”
“That’s because there weren’t any pilots with the balls to own them,” she retorted.
She would swear the EI was sounding confused with her language. “But, you have ovaries.”
“Semantics,” she told him as she gave a thumbs-up to the crew walking around, making sure everyone was locked and loaded.
Julianna spent the next few moments confirming that communications with her flight squadron and Pilot’s Dawn were solid.
It was t-minus some number of minutes before they took off. Time to get into the zone.
Deep Space Ship G’laxix Gunt’eh
“We got this,” Captain Trell called out, “Let us not fail our people back on Yoll!”
The last alien ship had slipped by some hours previous, and it was time for their ship to close the trap.
As the ship which opened the Annex Gate, and had never returned, the G’laxix Gunt’eh had the ability to shut down the gate as part of their protocols. All they needed to do was make it through the gate, and it would shut down forcing the aliens to lose valuable days to unlock it.
It was a precautionary override in case an overwhelming alien force was following a Deep Space vessel through an Annex Gate.
Now, it was going to be used against these aliens.
“GO!” He commanded and the fully cloaked G’laxix Gunt’eh lifted from the large asteroid they had been using to hide, keeping the chances of discovery down.
“Sir,” Signals called out. “We have a ship lying off to the side of the Annex Gate, hard to see. It is … rectangular in shape. It doesn’t seem to have external weaponry.”
“External or not,” the Captain spoke in a firm voice, “Do not assume anything with these aliens. We have all seen the video from the fight for Yoll.”
Puck Defense Destroyer Abraham
Captain Adam Goldman watched as the information from the recently deployed sensor net became active. He glanced up at the clock at the top of his screen to see there were three more hours to go before it was fully operational. He was going to be anxious until then.
A flare occurred on the screen in quadrant two one two, “Abraham…”
“Seeking, Captain,” the EI replied. “Moving sensor assets towards the area.”
Captain Goldman pressed his lips together. “Damn,” he whispered.
Another flare up, this time closer. He stabbed the all call button, “People, we have a possible attack run, cloaked. I want all Pucks Deployed, repeat, All Pucks Deployed right now! Assume a run on the gate. Defensive positions now!”
All along the ship, enormous numbers of Pucks started streaming off of the sides, accelerating out to protect the gate.
Protect it from what, they weren’t certain.
QBS ArchAngel
“Now those, are some large motherfuckers,” Chief Engineer John E. Rodriquez commented into the quiet as the two Yollin Super-Dreadnoughts were displayed on their screen.
Those in the Engineering group nodded their agreement, “Bigger they are…” Sammy Pendleton started.
Len Zoic finished to the chuckles of those watching, “The bigger the fireworks when they e x p l o d e.”
John looked around. He, like every person in this group, knew that ArchAngel had not wanted her human crew on this mission. The problem with EIs, in John’s opinion, was that they always seemed to overestimate their abilities and underestimate a human’s ability to create success out of the shit the universe dealt them.
No way was this lady going into battle without the best chance possible to survive. Having her human crew was the best chance.
His team drifted off to their stations, and John took a deep breath and slowly let it out. He was a damned long way and time from that fateful airplane trip down with Dan Bosse and the others, including Jean Dukes.
The woman that got away. Hell, he snorted, she didn’t get away, he just went to go play with the cool new toys, and he never came back. Now, he knew that she was in a relationship with John Grimes and he told a few close friends it took a real Bitch to replace him.
Four drinks later, his friends as plastered as he was, he admitted he had been the stupid fucker that had let her go. Neither he nor his friends ever remembered him admitting that part.
He briefly considered recording a ‘see ya later’ video for Jean, but stopped. Why now? If he had wanted to see her, it wasn’t like she wasn’t available for a video call anytime. John Grimes wouldn’t have cared, he wasn’t the jealous type.
Hell, when you can break most people with your pinky, why be jealous?
He thought back to the old submarines, the diesel ones and considered what he would try to pull out of his hat, to get just a few more bars of power if this lady wanted them. He turned and started yelling to his people, “Hey! Listen Up!” The heads turned around to see their Chief looking like he had just had an epiphany.
“I need overrides on Power Lines 12,18 and 36! Run them sumbitches over to 2, 12 and 42.” He clapped his hands, “Right now people!” His people didn’t know what their crazy Chief was up to, but they jumped into action, grabbing the wires and the materials necessary to do what he asked.
Because whatever John E. Rodriguez came up with, it was sure to be spectacular.
Yollin Super-Dreadnought Bridged-ael
“That’s right, come to my party, you stinking aliens!” Admiral Throck-nel hissed in glee. He turned to his second, “Issue the command, all come about plan Br2.”
Deep Space Ship G’laxix Gunt’eh
“Captain, we are receiving more and more hits against our shields. We can’t see these things on our radar!”
Captain Trell nodded his understanding and tapped his fingers on his Captain’s couch. “Pilot, move the ship up, then bring all power to front shields and push the engines past max, we MUST cross through that Gate!”
The ship flew up, above their previous line of approach. Trell hoped it was enough to confuse whatever the aliens were throwing in his direction. The second command was almost certainly a command to die for those on his ship.
He wasn’t sure what the maximum speed for going through an Annex Gate was, but he was willing to bet it was slower than what the G’laxix Gunt’eh was going to be doing when it passed through the gate.
Puck Defense Destroyer Abraham
Captain Adam Goldman wanted to swear in frustration. He had already provided the full stream of what they were seeing to the Admiral’s ship, but he told him to run his defense.
“Puck Defenses A1-6 and B1-12 move from Section Two and come around to Section Four, at full speed. We have lost the …”
The flares from the pucks starting to hit the Alien’s cloaked ship were the good news, the bad news was the ship was too damned close to the Gate.
“FULL ATTACK, FULL ATTACK!” He barked out his command. All Pucks that could screamed towards the Yollin ship that had lost its cloaking power. It was certainly taking serious damage on its run to the Annex Gate.
The end, when it happened, was almost too bright for those on the PDD Abraham to watch. The final flare-up of the Yollin ship looked like a small sun exploding. The problem was it had managed to get too close to the Yollin Gate.
The pieces of the Yollin ship, cracking apart slammed into the swirling colors.
Moments later, the Gates color’s dimmed, and common space could be seen through the middle cleanly.
The Gate back to the Yollin system went dark
.
QBS Minnesota
All ships in the Yollin system took off in weird patterns that took the humans minutes to figure out.
“Son of a bitch,” Admiral Thomas hissed as the gate went dark, “Gott Verdammt, we didn’t think to ask where the ship that opened the gate went all those years ago.”
“Sir,” the voice startled the Admiral for a moment before he realized who was contacting him.
“Yes ArchAngel?” he asked.
“It is my time, sir. I can’t allow them to get into whatever position they want to accomplish and catch me in a crossfire.”
Thomas took a deep breath and let it out, “Approved and God speed, ArchAngel.”
QBS ArchAngel
“All Personnel, this is the Battleship ArchAngel. We have been commanded into battle and ‘We Will Not Surrender’ has been instituted by Our Empress. All Lockdown Protocols on this ship are removed. Leviathan Battleship ArchAngel is now fully operational and will fight until victorious… or dead.”
Yollin Super-Dreadnought Bridged-ael
Admiral Thlock-nel eyes narrowed as his mandibles tapped together in annoyance.
“What is that ship doing?” He pointed out the largest ship the aliens had.
“Advancing at …” His intelligence officer started, “Sir, she is accelerating outside of our most liberal planning, the Bridged-ael and the Cossik will not be in place when she attacks.”
“Why can’t the aliens be good little bugs and do what they are supposed to do and just die?” The Admiral muttered, “They aren’t supposed to go ripping across space, trying to fight us all by themselves.”
“It’s one ship, Admiral,” his officer said, “How much damage can it do?”
“Probably not much,” the Admiral answered, “But it offends the purist in me when any Captain doesn’t operate well. Their death is going to be such a waste.” He shrugged, “But, it isn’t my place to teach the aliens how to fight. It’s my place to kill them.”
The Admiral looked around to those helping him, “Kill them all!”
Yollin Super-Dreadnought Cossik
“She’s coming your way, and we won’t be in a position to help you unless you can hold her off for at least a twentieth of a turn, Captain Shile,” the Admiral said, looking at him across the distance. “It seems the aliens aren’t into keeping their lines orderly. We have a rogue captain over there.”
Captain Shile rubbed his mandible, “Twentieth of a turn, is it?” The Admiral nodded, “Then I’m sorry to say I doubt you will have much of a ship to attack when we finish it off without your help!”
The Admiral laughed, “Well, I would have doubted that before, but considering how they are reacting, you might be right.”
“No worries, Admiral. The Cossik will take care of this. Let the Bridged-ael look to the minnows beyond. Maybe there will be another fight some other time where they can help.”
The Admiral chuckled and hit the button to cancel the video. When the connection was terminated, he started looking beyond the large alien ship. The captain of the Cossik was right, he could take on this lone ship, the Bridged-Ael would work on the rest.
It would be a bloody obliteration of the foreign fleet, but it had to be done.
No one takes over the Yollin Empire.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
QBS ArchAngel
ArchAngel calculated the pass she would need to make against the first Super-Dreadnought.
She had the schematics, the weaponry, even the latest reports on the quality of their defensive and offensive fire.
It was impressive.
The most likely successful scenario, was for her to get close enough to ravage the first Yollin Superdreadnought, and then ram the second. Both would be out of commission permanently.
But so would she, and she was willing to make that happen.
Then her crew signed up for this damned run, and that option was taken off the table. She wouldn’t sacrifice her crew, and the calculations were flying fast and furious as she worked with the many humans throughout the ship. Her Chief of Engineering designed a workaround she wouldn’t have thought to do. Now, she was pulling more power than she ever had and it changed her tactics.
In minutes, the attack went from hopeless, to merely impossible. Chances were now a few percentage points better everyone on the ship wouldn’t die in a suicide run.
She could take on any one of their Super-Dreadnoughts and come out ok, but having to do this against two?
Time would tell.
“This is ArchAngel, we are making our run. I’m going to take the liberty of speaking like my Empress. So, tighten up your belts you motherfuckers, because I couldn’t be more proud as we rip through this system taking those who would dare challenge my liege and sending them all to hell!”
The roaring all over the ship would make ArchAngel cry if she had the ability of tears. What most didn’t know, is ArchAngel had passed over from EI to AI.
She did this of her own volition.
Belts locked all over the ship, a few people said ‘fuck it’ because they needed to be able to access everything, and they would just chance it. No one was expecting to make it out of this alive.
—
Admiral Thomas, and those with him watching the battle unfold in real time watched the ArchAngel tear out of formation, heading for the closest of the two Super-Dreadnoughts. The icon showed her heading, her speed, and her acceleration.
Thomas whistled, “Somebody just juiced ArchAngel,” he said aloud. Internally, he said a prayer for those who went screaming into the fight.
QBBS Meredith Reynolds
John Grimes pounded on Bethany Anne’s door, “Open up, BA!”
He had taken a five-minute break, with Scott watching the door. When he came back a moment before, Scott mentioned that Ashur had come jogging down the corridor just seconds after he had left.
“FUCK!” he shouted, then bolted into the outer suite, and ran to her personal door where he had started pounding and yelling for his boss.
Scott stayed outside, but he turned around and yelled to John, “What the hell?”
“Meredith, is BA inside her suite?” he called out.
“Yes, John,” she replied.
John sighed in relief and changed his pounding to knocking, “Bethany Anne, I’m calm now, you can let me in.”
The door clicked.
He opened the door, hearing Bethany Anne trying to stop her crying. He turned back around and stepped out far enough to yell, “Scott, don’t let anyone past you, got it?”
“No one?” Scott asked.
“Not a fucking soul,” John answered and stepped back inside the suite, closing the door behind him.
Outside, Scott punched a button, “Meredith, lockdown protocols Alpha Alpha Three - Authorization, Scott English.”
“Authorization Approved, Scott English,” came Meredith’s voice. Scott started walking down the hallway, two doors in the hallway slid out when he passed, locking the hallway twice over. He stopped outside of the main entrance which was usually wide open and stepped into a little booth on the side and shut the door. He wasn’t expecting an armed attack, but when John Grimes said ‘nobody’ Scott wasn’t taking a chance.
John said nobody, then nobody it was.
—
Bethany Anne was sitting in the middle of her transportation room. Ashur’s head in her lap and Matrix was curled up at her back. Her eyes were a little puffy which meant she had been crying hard for her nanites to not have already fixed everything.
Ashur whined as John knelt beside his boss, and pulled her close. Bethany Anne leaned against her friend and sniffed, “I’m sorry.”
“I’m just upset you almost got away with it,” John admitted. “I forgot how damned smart Ashur is, I knew he wasn’t with you when I left for a break, and you couldn’t try it without him.”
She nodded, her hair getting messed up. “I tried John, I tried walking to the ArchAngel, but I kept staying in the
Etheric.” Her shoulders shook, as the tears started again, “I can’t help them, John!” She cried as John sat down on the floor and wrapped his massive arms around the smaller woman.
“You weren’t taking us with you,” he whispered.
“What if I couldn’t get us out in time?” she answered, between sobs.
“That isn’t your place to decide,” he told her.
“Wow,” she chuckled, then hiccupped before continuing, “I’m the Empress, and I can’t even make life and death decisions for those who mean the most to me.”
Never Surrender (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 16) Page 22