“Danger!!! Ship to the right!!!”
Tolili-Ukh X. Meleyephatian Modular Frigate. Configuration: near-space/atmospheric.
The huge and at first glance awkward-looking dark triangular starship slowly came up from behind a hill. Was there something back there?! We’d been looking up for enemies, not even considering that they could come from other directions.
On my command, all four flying boards sharply pivoted and took shelter in a very convenient crevasse. I ordered everyone to hide and try to limit their radio communication, unbuckled from my levitator and, after making sure my magnetic soles were sticking to the iron-nickel ground, ran up the slope to a viewpoint of large icy boulders and carefully peeked out.
And I was just in time. A spark flashed, and right where our shuttle had just been, a crimson flower blossomed in a powerful explosion! The dark frigate unhurriedly approached the fire, then hovered one hundred fifty feet over the flaming wreckage and shot another rocket or torpedo, turning the ground into a boiling lake of molten stone.
Chapter 9. Wrong-Way Raid
NO WAY OF LEAVING the planetoid. No weapons capable of destroying the enemy battery. No way of communicating with fleet command and only a few hours’ worth of air for two of us, Minn-O and Tini, though the rest had much more. Seemingly, it was time for us to fall into despondency and despair. But our little squadron of twelve members of three races was in high spirits and full of vigor. Despite all the challenges and danger, we were still alive and were not about to give up without a fight!
So, just after destroying the Shiamiru, the Meleyephatian frigate took off into the sky like a Roman candle, joining the defenders of the enemy planetoid. After that, I held a small meeting where we discussed the main issue — what to do next? We had no thermonuclear or any other kind of bomb that could destroy the terrestrial battery and thus clear a path for Geckho landing ships. What was more, I had very serious fears that even if we were able to destroy the laser turret tower by some means, the Third Strike Fleet Commander Kung Waid Shishish and his military advisors simply wouldn’t understand the opportunity we had given them, and all our sabotage would come to naught.
Why had we not contacted command and told them about the weak point in the defenses while still on the Shiamiru? Good question. I personally didn’t know why Captain Uraz Tukhsh hadn’t done it. Maybe he was afraid they would assign the mission to someone else, who would then get all the glory. And maybe he assumed nothing would happen to the ship after landing, and he would have plenty of time to communicate the information? Although... what if we were shot down during landing? It was of course not impossible that I was unfairly demonizing the captain and Uraz Tukhsh, not having much experience in military matters, had just not considered it. Or perhaps it was the other way around, and he had good intentions. For example, maybe he didn’t say anything because he was afraid of the important information being intercepted by the Meleyephatians, or that they might take measures and close the gap in their defenses? Who could say...?
One way or another, the problem of transmitting information to fleet command had become crucial. Ayukh said that he could do it if he could get access to some Meleyephatian comms equipment. The old Navigator didn’t know their language, but he had encountered Meleyephatian starships, navigation systems and comms devices before in his long space career. All that remained was a “minor issue.” We had to dig up an intact enemy transmitter. But where?
“Alert! Another starship!!!” Imran shouted, forcing us all to scramble up the hill and, after taking cover behind the boulders and uneven points on the surface, hide and stop talking.
It was the same type of frigate, a Tolili-Ukh X, and it was as if it had come out from behind the neighboring hill. Maybe this was the same one we saw before? Maybe, but it was hard to believe. It had taken off from the planetoid and no one had seen it turn around and land again. Copying the course of the first frigate, this Tolili-Ukh X passed over the still smoldering lake of molten rock where the Shiamiru was destroyed and took off vertically into the starry sky.
“Maybe they have a repair base there,” Vasha Tushihh suggested, looking in agitation at the quickly shrinking enemy frigate, fluidly joining the whirlpool of the far-off space battle. “So damaged Meleyephatian ships land somewhere beyond the hills, quickly get patched up, fill up on rockets and go back into battle?”
“That seems very likely. And we can help our fleet if we stop these constant reinforcements,” the Supercargo piped up.
The Supercargo went by the name Avan Toi, and he was worth telling about in much greater detail. First off, I had never met such a massive and corpulent member of his race before. The level-eighty Geckho looked almost like a ball in exoskeleton armor. Without any armor he wasn’t much different from a furry perfect sphere on reinforced-column legs. Then poking up off that were his small-eared head and two stubby front arms protruding awkwardly. Despite his corpulence, Avan Toi moved with impressive grace and skill and I had never seen the Supercargo seem self-conscious about his appearance in my whole time on the Shiamiru. And no one in the crew gave him a hard time about his weight either. In fact, Avan Toi enjoyed great respect from the team, and now his idea was immediately supported by Uline and the twin brothers.
“If we can’t blow up the battery,” Uline said, “we can try to damage the Meleyephatians another way by attacking their repair base and, at least for a time, paralyzing it!”
Basically, all the Geckho were unanimous in their preference to change target and attack the repair base. Most likely, I could have leaned on my Authority or even applied my psionic abilities to make the Geckho go back to the initial plan and attack the cannon battery. But I didn’t do that. The new target was much closer, which was quite an important factor given our limited time and oxygen. Also the repair workshop and its scurrying technicians and mechanics seemed like a softer target for our meagre force. But the most important thing was that I was on guard after hearing that there were automated defensive structures next to the terrestrial batteries. If Uraz Tukhsh’s well trained and prepared group of Space Commandos had been entirely taken down in a matter of seconds, where was the guarantee that we would not meet the same fate?
“Alright, it’s decided! We’ll change targets!” I pointed at the place where the enemy frigates were coming from. “New mission: paralyze the repair workshop! To the levitators!”
* * *
WE WERE WRONG. It was not a repair base as we thought, but a closed armored door about ninety feet in length leading into a subterranean complex. Before our eyes, the barrier slid aside twice, letting a Tolili-Ukh X frigate out from the bowels of the rock both times.
“They’re coming out so fast! Are they stamping them from a mold?!” Dmitry Zheltov moaned out in Geckho as he laid next to me, no less stunned by our discovery than me.
“Most likely, they have a module warehouse under the rocks and an automatic assembly plant,” explained the wise Ayukh. “The Tolili is a Meleyephatian modular frigate, which can be quickly assembled by robots for various purposes. For example, they can quickly assemble a high-speed interceptor. Or if they need a heavy long-distance fighter or assault plane, they build that. They stick on the stabilizer wings, then it can land on a planet with a dense atmosphere. If they put on other systems, it can be a cloaked recon ship, or even a noncombat ship for extracting minerals.”
“Once upon a time, the Geckho were also taken by this idea of a universal situation-dependent ship,” Uline Tar spoke up, lying on the slope and placing rocks on top of herself for extra camouflage, “but then my race began to favor narrowly specialized ships. It was just too wasteful and inefficient to produce and store mountains of modules that might never be used.”
As I listened to their conversation, I was watching the enemy complex with the rapt attention, trying to find defense systems on the approach. As far as I could tell, there were none. My IR-Lens couldn’t see anything distinct either and was actually malfunctioning because the takeoffs raised
the temperature of the area too high. Scanning also didn’t find anything. It only revealed red-hot and molten stones, solidified glass, swollen and hardened with dark bubbles on its surface. Even from this far away, my radiation gauge started humming in a nasty tone as soon as I pointed it at the molten stone near the entrance to the enemy complex. Something had definitely “made a boom” there not so long ago. Maybe that was what explained the lack of defensive structures — they had been swept away by a powerful explosion.
Turning back to the silent Ayukh, I built on that thought:
“As far as I understand, the Meleyephatians are putting together close-radius ships so they can attach more weaponry, bolster defenses, and quickly join the battle with minimal crew.”
“That’s exactly right, Gerd Gnat,” Ayukh agreed, eagerly breaking into an explanation. “Instead of expensive hyperspace thrusters that eat through energy, they’re adding extra shields and weaponry because these ships will never have to leave the bounds of this star system. Although as for the crew, that’s disputable. If the Meleyephatians have respawn points on the base, our enemies will have basically unlimited reserves and can throw out another ship every twenty-fourth of an ummi. Look, there’s another!”
And in fact, the armored door slid to the left, spitting another identical triangular Tolili-Ukh X frigate out of the underground complex. Our whole group pressed against the stones and froze motionless until it passed. We stood no chance if it saw us. But as soon as the enemy ship hid behind a hill, I jumped out and commanded:
“Forward! Take your places on the levitators! We need to get into the base before the next ship comes out!”
We crossed the nine hundred feet between our shelter and the base entrance in a matter of seconds. Boldly unclipping from my still moving flying board, I ran up first to a strange intact wall panel in the blackened stone that caught my attention from afar. It was a stone disk one and a half feet in diameter. The surface had a carefully carved shallow spiral with a large number of turns. Uhh... This didn’t look much like a control panel for the external doors, although... who knew with these Meleyephatians? At the very least, there was nothing else even distantly reminiscent of a sensor panel or remote control that I could see. I ran my gloved finger over the winding spiral, cleaning the dust and sand out of it, and trying to figure out what to do.
Your character lacks the Break-in skill.
Ah, that’s right! What was I doing taking the lead with my mismatched abilities. I should have let a Thief do it. And I had a great specialist who knew how to break all kinds of locks and security systems.
“Tini, open ‘er up!” I pointed my kitten to the strange spiral, then walked away.
The Miyelonian teen instantly had his thief tools in hand — a code breaker, a tangled coil of wires and fasteners, and some kind of electronic meter with a screen and arrow. Tini stood, looking at the stone disk in thought, then lowered his head, downcast:
“Master Gnat, I don’t have enough skill! I need Break-in level seventy and Electronics over fifty!”
God damn it... Although the Electronics... maybe I could figure it out on my own when I saw all the circuits. I ordered Imran to break the stone panel out of the wall with his blade. A moment later, the Gladiator handed me a flat stone disk. And on the back side there was... nothing! No wires, no computer chips or circuits, just bare stone and traces of cement or some kind of hardened glue. What the crap?
I felt very dumb. I was trying to navigate the wires, but that was clearly the wrong idea. Actually, I should have activated the scanning icon! Uhh... I didn’t understand a damn thing... there really were some kind of electronics inside the spiral stone, but there was no way of saying for sure that they had any connection to the massive door blocking the entrance to the subterranean complex. Maybe it was a clock. Or simply an element of decor meant to glow, vibrate or beep in certain conditions. I couldn’t figure out a single thing even at maximum zoom on the mini-map. It was possible that this device simply had broken due to the recent nearby explosion. Although... there was another way to open the gates! Inside the cliffs, on the other side of the massive doors, I could see a device on the map:
External gate control system. Interface chance: 7%. Total control chance: 0%.
I could barely hold back an explicit outburst. Just seven percent chance that I could hack or break the system with my mind, and absolutely zero to open it with my current skills. I realized I was still wearing the Constitution rings, so I opened my inventory and put the Intelligence ones back on. But that didn’t change things much, just brought the interface chance up to twelve percent. No, this was not the way forward...
All we could do now was wait for it to open again and let another starship out. And hope that we wouldn’t burn to death here on the red-hot stones or die from the extreme radiation. Then we would be able to slip in unnoticed (very low chance, to be honest), or just hope that the space frigate would be limited by the narrowness of the tunnel and could not turn us to ash with its cannons.
Wait! Now that was interesting! On my mini-map I saw a creature the game system identified as an enemy on the other side of the gates. Clearly, our arrival had not gone unnoticed and someone had decided to come up to a viewing window or surveillance system and figure out why there was activity on this side of the door. I couldn’t see the creature’s name on the map, just race and class:
Meleyephatian. Level-45 Technician.
I allowed the enemy to come up closer and shot my right fist outward. Got it! Hit you, overgrown little spider! And while I’ve got you under my control, how about you open up the gates for us!
Psionic skill increased to level fifty-one!
Mental Fortitude skill increased to level forty-six!
I warned my friends what was going to happen and ordered them to take out their weapons and prepare for a serious fight. Sparking blades appeared in Tini and Imran’s hands. Basha, Vasha and Eduard took out their heavy many-barreled cannons and activated the plasma-grenade-launchers on their exoskeleton armor. The others got their weapons ready as well. Basha Tushihh even extended me a Targeting System, suggesting I mark targets just like at the Relict outpost, but I just shook my head. I was now controlling an enemy player, so I was afraid to lose concentration and mess up the whole operation.
As soon as the thick reinforced and probably very solid door started to move, our squadron burst inside, instantly shooting every enemy we saw in the first room. I followed my friends in and managed to shoot the Dark Faction Pulse Rifle a few times. I even hit once.
Rifles skill increased to level forty-nine!
There were either six or seven Meleyephatians, and they didn’t even have time to react to our incursion. And the Technician who opened the gates for us died along with his allies. Almost the whole large ovular room was occupied by yet another Meleyephatian frigate ready for takeoff, but apparently it had no crew yet. And I didn’t see any markers on the mini-map. I sent Imran and Tini to check it out and they climbed out of the enemy spaceship almost at once to say that it was empty.
There was a long wide corridor going deep into the cliff, and I could see some flashing lights coming from it. I could also make out some movement and the glow of a forcefield blocking the path. I could even see the silhouette of the next unassembled frigate. Apparently, the automatic starship assembly plant was located there, and was still plugging away. But why did the frigate right next to us still not have a crew? I asked that aloud and got a very believable answer from Minn-O:
“What business does a crew have at a factory? The crew shows up after the ship is ready. There’s a hole in the right wall over there and, from what I can see on my map, there’s an elevator shaft. Seemingly, the crews come up the elevator from somewhere deep inside the underground base, take their frigate and go into battle.”
Exactly! I told the twin Geckho brothers and Eduard not to waste any time and use their heavy weaponry to stop the elevator: break all the panels, power sources, gravity platforms, cab
ins and cables, then launch a few homing grenades into the very depths of the shafts to break everything they can and ideally collapse the shaft itself.
Authority increased to 35!
“Ayukh, Dmitry, you take the frigate! Check to see if the systems are ready, I would like to know if we can fly out on it. But first turn on the comms and tell command about our raid. Ayukh, I assign this mission to you! You know the frequencies and codes, but most importantly explain to the Third Strike Fleet landing teams how to come in for a landing with minimal risk. Everyone else, after me! We’re going to take care of the assembly plant!”
Chapter Ten. Targeting
THE FORCEFIELD I saw in the distant corridor let us through without the slightest resistance. As Uline Tar explained, it was a one-way field, which only stopped air from going out of the inhabitable spaces. And past it there was an air mixture a person, Miyelonian or Geckho could breathe, so I ordered Tini and Minn-O La-Fin to turn on their space suit air pumps at once to increase pressure in the tanks.
I only gave this order to the kitten and Princess; however the Supercargo, Medic and Trader also began pumping air into the reservoirs of their space suits. The Medic took advantage of the brief pause and started handing out a couple antiradiation pills to everyone because, according to his calculations, the dose of radiation we’d all received during our time outside the subterranean complex should have been deadly, although it was also reduced by the antiradiation properties of our spacesuits. I also obediently took and swallowed an antiradiation pill, even though I was not too worried about radiation, nor oxygen reserves. After all, my Listener armor had great defense against radiation and allowed me to store enough air for four and a half hours, so I would be fine.
Game Changer (Reality Benders Book #3) LitRPG Series Page 10