From the corner of my eye, I saw that Dmitry Zheltov was no less shocked, even taking off his headphones to eavesdrop. I was also expecting an explanation. But Uraz Tukhsh was clearly embarrassed and stumbling as he looked to the powerful Geckho behind him for moral support. Then he started to explain:
“You see, Gnat, you’re a good Prospector... well you aren’t really a Prospector now, but a Listener. That doesn’t matter, though... We don’t need anyone to find minerals now, so the job I hired you on for... we don’t need any more... And in the war... I mean what kind of war will it be for the Shiamiru, staying back in the third wave?! I doubt we’ll even see any Meleyephatians today!”
And what of it? I could not see the connection between the auxiliary role of his Shiamiru cargo shuttle and the end of my contract. Had the captain just not guessed before that his hastily rejiggered cargo ship would not be allowed to fight on the front lines against fearsome enemy cruisers and battleships? He probably knew, and yet he had hurriedly flown off to get me.
So I understood perfectly that he was not telling me the truth. And he knew I knew it. So a second explanation followed that was no less stupid than the first:
“The whole Geckho Third Strike Fleet only has members of other races on a few ships. One has a very talented Trillian Gunner, who cannot be replaced by any Geckho. Another has a legendary Cleopian Navigator. Waid Shishish himself on his Tinakuro cruiser has two Crystallide Engineers, both indispensable defensive experts. But on my ship, there are Humans of all stripes, a Miyelonian thief, and apparently even a Morphian... The other captains point their claws at me and say I command nothing but a band of space gypsies...”
Mysticism skill increased to level five!
I noticed the skill bump then raised my gaze. For some reason, Uraz Tukhsh was just feeding me a line instead of giving an honest answer. After all, he knew perfectly well about the Miyelonian and my human companions when he picked me up from Earth! But it didn’t bother him then!
With a heavy sigh, the captain continued his speech, and I could sense we were reaching his true motives:
“The presence of such a notable player on my little ship shifts the center of power and authority, weakening the position of the captain. I can see that half of my crew looks to you with admiration and awe, they hang on your every word! To them, you are in charge here. They listen to you more than their captain! And many authoritative Geckho in this fleet, including the commander himself, refer to the Shiamiru shuttle from the eighteenth flotilla as ‘the one with the human Gerd Gnat,’ not ‘the one with Captain Uraz Tukhsh!’ I simply cannot have that! I wavered for a long time, practically expecting a sign from on high, and here it is,” the captain said, pointing to the symbiote flickering about on the screen. “That is the signal that it is time for me to make a decision, and everything will be alright!”
I could sense that even this was not everything, and the captain probably had some other motivation for his sudden decision. But what he had already said was plenty for me, and I didn’t try to tease out the rest. I didn’t even try to dig around in Uraz Tukhsh’s brain, although I did have some opportunities. After all, it was not for nothing that the captain had brought in his enforcers and flattered me. He must have watched the end of the training in the cargo hold, so he probably knew about my psionic abilities and decided to take some precautions.
“Don’t worry, captain, I will finish this voyage and take my band of gypsies with me at the first opportunity so the other captains stop looking down on you. I don’t know how I’ll get to my home planet, but I’ve gotten out of a similar jam before.”
“Gnat, don’t think me so obstinate and harsh. I’m not going to throw you to the hands of fate on the first asteroid we reach,” the Aristocrat said with clear relief, now just trying to smooth over the sharp edges.
The Captain demanded the Navigator turn on the big screen and pointed me to the star map:
“Look, Gnat. Our Third Strike Fleet is going to capture the planetoid Ursa-II-II. It is the only satellite of the densely populated Meleyephatian planet Ursa II, and it houses the planet’s shield generators. Most likely, the satellite has already been taken, because it cannot have put up serious resistance. The Meleyephatians have removed all their combat ships from the system to fight the Miyelonians and suppressing terrestrial batteries doesn’t take long. Right after taking down the shield, there will be a traditional ultimatum to the inhabitants, and they will surrender without a fight to avoid orbital bombardment and total destruction. I think it will all be over within one ummi. Anyway, both on the planet itself and its satellites, there are quite a few small but heavily trafficked space ports. I’m sure we’ll find many ship owners happy to leave the war zone and I am willing to hire a small shuttle with my own money to send you back home.”
That was very noble on the captain’s part, which I immediately told him. Uraz Tukhsh replied with a slight bow and started to answer, but he was interrupted by the old Navigator:
“My Captain, we’re arriving to the Ursa system. The computers have already begun the countdown until we come out of hyperspace. Forty-seven, forty-six, forty-five...”
“Excellent news,” the captain turned rakishly in his hoverchair and floated over to the instrument panel. “I would bet anything that the Waideh-Tukhsh landing troops were first to set down on the enemy planetoid! My great relative Waid Shishish probably would not have missed the excellent chance to bring honor to our clan!”
A thought flickered by in my mind that I should take him up on this bet. To my eye, he was looking at this bloody space war through rose-tinted glasses. Nothing is that easy and, in such grand-scale operations, even the most carefully laid plans can get snagged up. What was more, I felt a stronger and stronger tension in my chest, sensing a growing alarm or even disaster. I was accustomed to trusting my presentiments. But I still kept silent, not wanting to jinx it and be blamed if I was right.
“Five, four, three, two...” Ayukh continued the countdown. But I just couldn’t settle down.
Danger Sense skill increased to level forty-one!
“Dmitry, turn sharp left and spiral!!!” I shouted before the countdown was over, then the main screen flickered on.
And the pilot obeyed! Due to the sudden thrust, I couldn’t hold on and fell out of the chair, rolling along the floor as the ship slammed to the left and started spinning on its lengthwise axis. If not for my Listener armor’s forcefield, which absorbed most of the damage, I would definitely have broken something. As it was, I slammed my head and right shoulder into a metal wall and it hurt very bad.
My vision faded for a moment in pain, but I still was able to see our little starship as it astonishingly threaded the needle between two huge pieces of twisted metal. How lucky! Then the shuttle dodged a twisted and sparking Greiss Ukhkh-Tor assault robot five feet from us. The assault mech, just like the ones I’d admired earlier, was twice the size of our shuttle and colliding with it at high speed could have had very severe consequences. But we got lucky...
Eagle Eye skill increased to level sixty-three!
Another piece of wreckage flew right past us and was eviscerated by the symbiote. The subsequent series of heavy blows to our energy shield and armor were palpable, but not deadly.
“What is that?!” the captain shouted, coming to his senses and testing his buckled belts with shaking hands in the copilot’s chair.
I had already stood to my feet and, holding my hands on the tilted monitor, booted the ship scanner, setting the search to low distance and maximum detail with an emphasis on metal. Our ship shook hard again as a large piece of debris grazed us but was deflected by the energy shield. The scan finally came back and I told everyone in a cracking panicky voice:
“That was a piece of Captain Leng Amothy Yore’s Grokh-Uvachch battleship of. What’s more, based on the scan, lots of other ships from the Third Strike Fleet met their end here...”
Chapter Seven. Mutiny
HOW GLAD I WAS that I h
ad the presence of mind not to bet with the captain about whose clan had been first to land on the planetoid! Apparently, it hadn’t been such a walk in the park, and the plan had gone awry with many first-wave starships lain low in a pitched battle with the Meleyephatian fleet. And that included Kung Waid Shishish’s biggest guns, like his only battleship and a few heavy cruisers. I saw that with just a cursory review of the data on the ship scanner. There must have been some leaks or treason at play, because the Meleyephatians had spun a thick web of gravity and thermonuclear mines right where the heavy ships of the Third Strike Fleet had come out of warp. In fact, some had not gone off and were still floating in space among the starship carcasses.
The Meleyephatians had also taken severe losses based on the innumerable fragments of their small frigates also strewn about. The remnants of that fleet, no more than two hundred small-class starships, were now huddled in around the planetoid Ursa-II-II, hidden behind the space fortress’s energy shield and protected by its many terrestrial batteries. The main part of the Meleyephatian fleet, where I saw a few heavy cruisers, unusual clusters of joined-together ships and some auxiliary-class ships, was currently fighting an intense battle with the united flotillas of the Geckho, trying to keep them away from the planetoid with its deadly cannon batteries.
Scanning skill increased to level nine!
You have reached level sixty-six!
You have received three skill points! (total points accumulated: fifteen)
By the way, about those points... I tried to remember if twenty-four hours had passed since I got the first of them. In other words, did I risk losing some if I died, or was there nothing to be afraid of? I remembered for certain that I had not spent skill points since the end of my class transition to Listener and was saving them up to improve Scanning. I wanted to spend all of them there after I got the easy levelling out of the way. I had been worrying about it for some time, but figured I’d hit it soon enough. But the Shiamiru had just barely evaded thousands of bits of debris, which would have put us all in the grave so the issue had become critically important. So, had a full day passed or not?
I considered it. All my calculations showed that it hadn’t been more than twenty hours. My heart immediately settled. Death could only set Gnat’s progress bar back to zero. Nevertheless, I didn’t want to risk it and placed all my remaining points into Scanning, bringing it to twenty-four. Woah! The result was so obvious so quickly! The picture on the ship scanner screen instantly became more comprehensible and distinct. I could even tell how the space battle for the planetoid was going.
Seemingly, the Geckho were winning. The fleet of large Meleyephatian ships had taken heavy losses from at least three flotillas of Geckho cruisers and had been forced to retreat from the shelter of the planetoid. Innumerable speedy Geckho interceptors then ducked between the enemy starships and jammed the Meleyephatians’ electronics and navigation systems, not letting them flee. I also saw that the Tinakuro heavy cruiser had survived. So the Third Strike Fleet still had a flagship, and commander Kung Waid Shishish was still in charge.
I told my observations to the Geckho on the bridge. The old Navigator, with huge headphones on his furry head was listening carefully to the chatter on the fleet channel and confirmed my observations:
“That’s right! Despite the heavy losses on our side at the very beginning of the battle, we’ve already practically won. Our main goal now is not to let the Meleyephatians’ most valuable ships escape, and the Kung is shouting angry curses, promising to execute all the interceptor pilots if even one Meleyephatian ship escapes.”
“But there are rumors the Meleyephatians will get reinforcements soon,” Dmitry Zheltov continued, also listening carefully to the fleet channel. “Also, on the group channel, Leng Uravi Tor, commander of flotilla eighteen, demands that we change trajectory and return to formation, because we are too far from the main group.”
“So go then!” the captain shot out. “The last thing we need is to be accused of disobeying orders!”
“I can’t! Look at that chain of four Meleyephatian frigates.” The pilot pointed at the group of red markers on the tactical map. “They took off from the planetoid and are trying to cut us off from the main flotilla. And I can’t go to the side because then I’ll be flying into a debris cloud and we’ll come out in range of the fortress batteries! Our only chance is to do a heavy burn into the distance at full speed, dodge the broken ships and hope the frigates will lose interest in us!”
And that is exactly what happened. A few minutes of fruitless pursuit later, the enemy frigates all turned away and headed back toward the planetoid with its energy shield and defensive batteries. As a result of these maneuvers, our Shiamiru ended up hell knows where, in a field full of debris and very far from the nearest allied ships. Both the enemies and command lost all interest in us, turning their attention to other starships and more important events.
The captain, pilot and Navigator continued to listen to the discussions on the fleet channel and, at a certain point, all gasped and grumbled in shock. After that, interrupting one another and stumbling in worry, they started shouting that Kung Waid Shishish had just issued a very surprising order to leave the uncaptured heavy Meleyephatian ships and prepare for a final assault on the planetoid.
According to the commander, our recon had confirmed that in no less than a quarter ummi the Meleyephatians would be getting reinforcements! There were around forty cruisers and more than three hundred ships of smaller classes en route! It wasn’t enough to defeat the Geckho fleet in an honest battle, but it was more than enough to hold out next to the planetoid under protection of the heavy fortress batteries and not let a landing team set down.
“Well god damn! Does the Kung understand that it will be a meat-grinder?!” Dmitry Zheltov shouted in alarm, slamming his fist on the instrument panel in annoyance. “The Meleyephatian interceptors and other small ships are still in play. They can immobilize our heavy ships and turn them into easy targets for the terrestrial batteries. An assault on the planetoid will lead to huge losses!”
“The commander simply has no choice,” old Ayukh said with sadness, lowering his head. “It’s either land and capture the enemy fortress, even at the cost of huge losses, or turn and run, admitting defeat in his very first battle at the rank ‘commander of many divisions.’ Knowing Kung Waid Shishish’s character, he’d sooner lose all allied ships in a desperate bid to win than retreat.”
I was entirely in agreement with the experienced and wise Navigator there. The commander would not hesitate to sacrifice all his subjects if that would give him even a transparently thin chance of achieving this victory, which was of principle importance. And while everyone in the room sat in thoughtful silence, digesting the worrying information, I walked up to the ship scanner.
Bringing up the planetoid, which we were supposed to take at any cost, I started working my magic with the settings. It was about what I did before when Uraz Tukhsh asked me to thin out the worthless asteroids, but now I set the scanner a bit differently. I wanted to know sources of elevated radiation, the density of electromagnetic fields, the structure of celestial objects, and also temperature gradients and density. I had to combine the results of various analyses and run a few more scans on places I found suspicious. Only then could I compile a more or less complete picture of the enemy base.
Scanning skill increased to level twenty-five!
Electronics skill increased to level forty-five!
Electronics skill increased to level forty-six!
So, what did we have here? An object of irregular shape which, could never be described as spherical. It was more like an oblong uneven polygon, twenty-four miles at the longest point, pocked with craters and crevasses. There were also a few elevated outgrowths, towering over the surface by many miles. The Meleyephatian fortress itself was located deep underground, safely sheltered against orbital strikes by many miles of dense crust. On the surface, I counted six huge generators for the planetoi
d’s huge forcefield and around one hundred seventy batteries with huge mobile turrets. It looked very, very intimidating. So, how to crack this tough little nut?
I turned the picture this way and that, looking it over from every angle. I reached a decision after telling the computer to overlay the firing range of each of the one hundred and seventy batteries. And the terrestrial batteries covered one another very well. Their ranges intersected many times, but due to the uneven landscape, the planetoid’s defense had a few weak points. For example, those spire-like outgrowths blocked relatively large sections of space for a few batteries. Then I discovered a narrow circular sector, covered only by one battery. And if this one and only defensive battery could somehow be destroyed, there would be nothing stopping the Geckho from landing a force there large enough to suppress any ground-based resistance.
But what could they use to destroy the huge and probably very powerful laser cannon, which was also covered by a forcefield? There were obviously not enough cannons here on the Shiamiru, we needed something more destructive and powerful...
My gaze caught on the remnants of the mines, floating among the debris of the Grokh-Uvachch and other ships. A thermonuclear or high-powered gravitation mine like that would probably be enough for this mission. All that remained was to figure out how to deliver it... although... was there any reason this shuttle could not serve that purpose? Grab one of them with a claw or gravity crane, figure out why it hadn’t detonated and then blast off full speed toward the planetoid and slam into a cannon tower! The fortress defenders would definitely not be expecting such a thing from a lone cargo ship that fell out of formation, so it might work just due to the element of surprise. Sure, we’d lose our shuttle, but that was a small price to pay for the whole Third Strike Fleet to break through the enemy defenses and capture the Meleyephatian fortress!
Game Changer (Reality Benders Book #3) LitRPG Series Page 8