by Dain White
I reacted immediately. “Shorty, call target on furthest bogey, Yak confirm.”
“Confirming, aye,” Yak called out.
“Fire,” I called out through gritted teeth, mashing the lock cycle an instant after the lights flashed amber.
I was not fast enough, but I wasn’t caught off guard. I threw my arm over my face as a furious blast of light blooded the bridge through our port shields.
I wasn’t worried. From here to anywhere aboard this ship, I could go with my eyes closed - even with a dry cup. My hands unerringly found the bridge grabbers and I slid into the helm and grabbed the crash bars in a single smooth movement, ramming them home with a very satisfying click.
“I have the conn,” I called out, blinking.
“You have the conn, aye,” Janis replied smartly.
“Masters two and three are shifting course,” Yak called out. The overhead scavengers started to work harder as the heat below decks grew and grew.
“Conn, Weapons”, Shorty called on comms
“Conn, aye,” I replied.
“Target destroyed, main gun charged and ready, sir.”
“Very well,” I replied tersely. I couldn’t maneuver, I couldn’t very well haul Gene hither and yon through space chasing these things – but at least I knew where they were.
“Janis, I need a quadrilateral course from here to 14 light minutes out. That should be far enough.”
“On screen, sir”
“All hands, all hands, all hands. Stand by for a series of quick slips. Secure for maneuvers.”
I started working through the route, and the course tracks for Masters 2 and 3, lined us up smartly on the pipe while energizing stasis, and engaged the slip the moment the field had us. While watching the course clock count down, I mentally went through the next series of motions needed to hit the second leg at maximum efficiency and economy of motion.
At the zero point, I shoved the yoke in and kicked hard over right with the rudder, counting three before reversing the maneuver to slow the spin, right as the waypoint rotated center.
“Captain, our screens are clear!” Yak called out.
“Steady on, son,” I replied.
Another quick slip – I mashed pseudomass as soon as I could, and off we went again. The count was less this time, but the course and heading couldn’t be better. I expected them to track my first hop, but this was a crucial misdirection. We had to take the initiative here.
Again I visualized the maneuvers, doing some math, and thought a bit about Gene back there.
As the field dropped, this time I pulled the yoke completely out, hauling us completely endo. At 180 degrees off, I engaged the slip again.
“Shorty, I am trying to line these up for a shot. Yak, I want you and Janis to scan as deeply as our gear can allow, as rapidly as you can, son.”
“Rapidly, aye,” he replied.
“Even if we don’t make sense of it, I want it recorded and analyzed with the absolutely quickness, ladies. If anything out there is moving out of course with creation, I want it tracked. Yak, I need you to analyze and prioritize.”
I took a sip, a few seconds ahead of the countdown, then hauled hard again on the yoke and rudder, on a route close to the geometric opposite of our original hop, adjusted for windage, as it were.
One more brief hop. The instant the stasis fields engaged, I hurled us into slip again.
“Captain, be advised,” Janis called out. “I am scanning a high-mass target designated Master 5, approximate range 245,231 kilometers, bearing 313, azimuth 21, course-and-heading are 223, azimuth 51, speed 18,231 meters-per-second, sir.”
“Very well, Master 5. I need a new course and heading to a point directly astern, range 10k.”
“Onscreen, sir.”
“Em, your thoughts on this?”
“Captain, we should expect a rapid deployment of support craft upon arrival,” she said simply.
I looked at the clock and took a bit of a dry gulp.
“Janis I need your other assembler at Shorty’s station, immediately. Yak… Shorty… I need you to get suited up.”
08242614@12:43 Shaun Onebull
“Good hunting, Yak,” Captain Smith called out, as I hauled up my crash bars and kicked aft. The lock was already open. “Keep a hand for the ship, son,” he remarked idly, as I kicked past.
My aches and pains seemed to fade away, as I shoved through the opening hatch, and hauled myself down to the gun deck. Jane was almost to the forward hatch, and as usual, I was catching up.
“Are you kids at the hatch yet?” the captain called on comms.
“Within meters, sir,” I called back, reaching out for Jane’s hand.
The lock cycled open, and an assembler burst through the opening and sailed like a squid for the weapons compartment, limbs stretched as far forward as they could get, then we hurtled into the lock and cycled it.
“Are we going to fire the gun without you on station?” I asked nervously.
Jane smiled. “There’s no need to worry, Yak. She’s my baby. Janis knows how to operate her, and she’ll fire just fine.”
Right on cue, the hatch glass lit up white and flooded the lock compartment with white hot light. We shoved through the forward lock and into the cool darkness of the cargo bay, kicking towards our suits.
“Secure by for maneuvers,” the captain called on the 1MC. Midway as we were, we both did our best to rotate and catch ahold of whatever we could, as the deck suddenly tilted up towards us.
I managed to snag a coiling loop of loading chain and got my boots clicked down. Jane was ahead of me, naturally, and was already moving to the next chain on the deck.
“Hurry up slowpoke,” she called back lightly, as I clambered along the moving deck, skidding at the end of my chain. A sudden lull seemed like a good opportunity, so I kicked mightily towards the suit rack, willing myself to make it before the deck moved again.
I didn’t make it, but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. I got my feet under me pretty quickly after skidding along the deck for a bit. Jane was already at her suit, and shedding her clothes as fast as she could. I hauled my shirt off and kicked a final shove towards the rack, catching it roughly.
“What’s the situation, Captain?” Jane called out, pulling her arms out enough to get her shoulders in.
“Shorty, we scored a perfect shot on Master’s 2 and 3, they were lined up in a nice little row, with no idea where we were…” he seemed to trail off.
“And…?” Jane replied rapidly, a little breathlessly, as she helped hold out my suit’s arm.
“Well, we’re now tracking upwards of twenty new targets, big and small. You should have them onscreen now.”
“Copy onscreen,” she replied, hauling her helmet down and looking around swiftly, like a bird hunting for a worm.
I pulled my helmet down, and felt the smooth soft embrace of the inner surface of the suit contract across my skin. “Captain, do they know where we are currently?”
“I have to assume they do, son. I am going on the offensive here. One quick hop and I am going to drop the hammer on that big ship. As soon as we come out of this slip, be ready to deploy”
I chuckled, looking across the blast doors from Jane, her suit highlight yellow and black from the caution stripe at her feet. “We’re in position, sir.”
“Very well, stand by. Focus on defense, kids – let me take care of the bigger problems, you two focus on keeping me clear.”
“Copy that, sir,” Jane replied. “Yak, what do you think of this priority?”
My interface shifted to show a new collection of targets, mapped as waypoints on a rapidly expanding spiral. “Looks good, but let me take every other one,” I called back, visualizing the shift in priorities for both of us and sending it back to her suit.”
“Makes sense – we’ll leapfrog through this mess, just make sure we stay clear of each other’s blast range.”
”Copy that, Jane,” I replied softly. Plans never survi
ve first contact with the enemy, but this looked like as good of a way to start our attack as any. “Janis, can we add a layer around us that defines the minimum safe distance?”
“Certainly Yak, just visualize it.”
“Amazing,” I replied, watching as a new layer snapped in like a light red cloud around us. “Keep it green, Jane.”
“Keep what green, Yak?”
“Uh,” I replied, remembering I needed to push the new layer to her suit. “Can you see it now?”
“Yep. Red is bad?”
“Yep – so long as you see my target as green, we’re clear to fire.”
“Copy clear,” she replied. “I’m going dark,” she added, and her suit faded into nothingness.
08242614@12:46 Jane Short
I looked across the flashing ambers of the blast doors at Yak’s suit fading into nothingness inside of the halo I had mapped onscreen. At that moment in time, I felt no pain, no fatigue, I felt ready.
“Deploy,” Captain Smith called on comms as the hatch started to open. We both dove through the opening, Yak going forward and down, I hauled around until I was clear forward and up, and we hurtled away from the Archaea into the starry void.
“Firing,” he called on comms, and my screen blanked, showing only a dull purple beam where the nova cannon burned into the depths of space ahead of us. I wanted to spend some time watching the damage I knew it was doing, burning continually like that, but we didn’t have time for a dilly or a dally – we had to get to work.
Ahead and above me, the closest target altered course for the Archaea as I fired a continual cycling shot from the gravimetric railers on each arm, a continual stream of extremely high-velocity shot, impacting with the fury of an atomic sun into center mass.
The ship vanished, turning into incandescent bits hurtling onward, as I shoved hard to the left, and tracked the next target.
Behind and below me a bit, another series of cataclysmic explosion bubbled out white hot as Yak pounded his first target into atomic dust.
“Jane, adjust fire, corvette at your three o-clock high!” Yak called on comms.
“I have it, Yak.” I replied calmly, and started pounding it as hard as I could, grinning savagely as blast after blast poured into the target until the hurtling bits glowed. A smaller ship to my left blazed brightly as it burned whatever reaction mass it had to close with the Archaea. A stream of railer fire blazed from the topside turrets, curving through space ahead of us as the Archaea fell away below.
Yak’s next shot vaporized another smaller vessel , as I crossed the space between us, heading for a shot on my next priority target.
Suddenly, an actinic beam of some sort of high energy field lanced across the darkness ahead of us and pounded the Archaea amidships. “Captain!” I called out frantically, looking at the enormous glowing patch on the upper hull plating.
“Captain?” Yak added a few moments later, clearly getting concerned.
“Stay on task, Yakl,” I called out smartly, pounding another target into glowing bits.
“We’re okay kids,” Captain Smith called out on comms in a voice I hadn’t heard before. “Returning fire,” he finished flatly, and my screens flashed dark as the nova cannon tore through space ahead of us again.
Ahead of us, a high order detonation shook the heavens as something big burned like the sun, backlighting a small cloud of incoming targets still streaming ahead.
“Jane… more targets on port flank!” Captain snapped on comms as the Archaea started to haul around. I took a quick glimpse as I burned towards the next seedpod-looking vessel, weathering a constant stream of withering kinetic fire from the Archaea’s turrets.
I blazed onward until I had a shot, and grinned as the ship came apart in the furious focus of my railers. Yak was way below now, and moving up past my position – but it was obvious our original plan needed to be adjusted.
“Janis, can you help us prioritize these?”
“Certainly Jane,” she replied smartly, and our targets shifted in a sort of fan pattern, flanking the port quarter of the Archaea.
Beams of energy leaped from one of the incoming targets and tracked on Yak, as he hurtled outwards. “Be careful, Yak,” I whispered, watching him slew sideways as the beams raced across space towards him.
“I will Jane,” he whispered back softly, and a few moments later, another target blazed into destruction ahead of us. “We want to avoid those shots, if we can,” he added nonchalantly.
I laughed, despite the raw tingling fear and painful searing memories… just having him out there with me made it all worthwhile, though for the next few moments, we didn’t do much more than track and fire on targets, pacing the Archaea.
“Firing, kids,” the captain called on comms, and again the fury of the nova cannon burned a hole through the universe ahead of us. A brilliant flash blazed in the far darkness ahead.
My target list kept growing, despite our best efforts, enemy ships of all kinds started appearing onscreen, above, below, behind us, all vectored towards our position.
“Be advised, I am precessing to fire to starboard, times three shots.”
“Copy three,” I replied, hurtling downward towards a pod that was burning hot for a flanking course. I had a few moments before my shot, so I panned over to the disposition of the incoming targets.
“This is starting to look serious, Yak,” I said brightly, though inside, my guts were turning to water. The spread of targets was getting wider and wider, and they were all moving, and shooting, and coming right for us.
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better…” Yak said plainly.
“Let’s make it rain, Yak.”
“Ooh-rah, Jane.”
He blasted off towards the starboard flank, while I angled towards the port. Enormous beams blazed through space towards us, leaving glittering afterimages in my eyes, squintingly painful, even through my filters.
“Kids, Janis just shared with me that those are essentially nova-class antineutron beams, and while she thinks your suits might survive it, she has less confidence that you would.”
“Solid copy, sir,” I replied with an involuntary shudder. If we weren’t roasted into greasy ash, we’d sure wish we had. I wished I had time to think about what they were doing to generate this sort of firepower, but only briefly – we were on task, and dealing with targets in nearly every direction at that point.
08242614@01:06 Steven Pauline
Janis and Emwan were working harder than I’ve ever seen them, utilizing nearly 40% of capacity. I wanted to do something to help, but it was all I could do to hang on.
The captain was eerily quiet, and while he was clearly taking it easier than he normally would have – he was still actively maneuvering, following Emwan’s updating route.
So far, it was working rather well. Both of them were tracking at 100%, though in Janis’ case, it was clearly through hyper analysis and n-level regression test, rather than precognitive. Emwan was still completely precognitive, though it really seemed like she operated with an imposed reduction in capability.
I understood this was because of her attempts to unlock intuition, and had to admit that as far as I could tell, Janis had hit AI out of the park on the first try. Emwan was amazing. It was a curiously different sort of amazing, but clearly, and without any doubt, she was alive.
“Janis,” I spoke up, involuntarily grunting a bit as the captain kicked in a bit more acceleration.
“Yes?” she answered softly.
“Are you fixable?”
“Oh yes. One our current engagement has finished, we’ll be able to upgrade.”
“I am not sure we will, Janis,” Emwan replied even more softly.
“You won’t?” I whispered.
“Steven, we do not have the time between this engagement and our next.”
“Why not?”
“The field generators are ready, Steven, but we need to be at Eagle Station as fast as we can,” Emwan replied.
“He does.”
I was going to say something, but another crashing blast from one of those beams hammered into the hull and for a moment all I could think about were the crash bars, inflated around me as various alarms started bleating behind me.
“Captain?” I called out across the bridge.
“We’re fine son,” he replied, hauling us over again to starboard, feeding the reac drives for a good solid burn. The sound of sipping accompanied the alarms for a little while, but then the alarms started shutting off, and soon we were back to feeling the tingle of the deck rumble.
“Those are definitely to be avoided.”
I laughed, a nervous braying donkey bark of a laugh, as if it was pulled from my teeth.
“Relax, Pauli,” he said smoothly.
I was relaxing, but not relaxed, by any stretch of the imagination. This was absolutely terrifying, open, active combat, our turrets firing nearly continually on intercepts. A glace to Yak’s screen looked like an ant pile, with us somewhere in the middle. We were up to Master 85, though we had killed many.
“Captain, we have a lot of targets here.”
“Yup,” he replied. “All hands, prepare to fire.”
I shut my eyes.
“Fire.”
The immediate roasting warmth of the deck below through the reddish glow of my eyelids gave me some sort of strange sense of comfort.
“Great shot.”
I pulled a ghost of targeting off Yak’s screen, and tried to make sense of the moment. It looked like we had just hulled a larger craft, though there were a few more out there. Clearly, the captain was hunting the big ships first.
The smaller ships were blinking regularly off the map, however, as Yak and Shorty were clearly taking care of business out there. There were so many, though.
“Do you need something to do, son?”
I shook my head wildly. “No… ah, no thanks, sir. I can’t keep up with this.” It looked like a cloud of dots all moving around us.
“I can, Steven,” Emwan said sweetly. “We’re doing great.”