Twin suns of Carrola (Starshatter Book 2)

by Dark Knight

  After spending some time and walking around on Cav, the local residents treated the sentient dog surprisingly well – probably in a way no male Vaugn could’ve ever imagined. Moreover in his short, tortured existence Ort had never faced kindness – he in all likelihood didn’t even know what the word meant. As it came to pass many children were willing to play with him, and sometimes even Boris was overwhelmed by the torrent of emotions Ort’s mind was swimming in. The dog cried every time when the laughing groups of happy children descended upon him, scratching and stroking his head, playing with his tail and ears. It reinforced the iron determination of Boris – all Vaugn matriarchs would suffer no matter the cost! The thousand of souls’ tortured voices harped and wailed in agreement, and his forehead twitched in pain. Forcing them to stay silent and maintaining his dominion over them became an ever-increasing burden for the telepath.

  Sitting in a chair to the left and behind the captain’s command pit, Boris could observe unhindered the entire bridge, and keep a watchful eye over its occupants minds. He had a long talk with Anit’za before they dropped out of hyperspace, about what he’d expected of him during battle. Boris was told not to use any offensive powers and abilities – the captain’s telepathic combat strategy was sound of mind, and he’d thought that showing all of your capabilities outright in battle was not at all smart.

  In combat he could sense living opponents in close proximity of the ship, it wasn’t possible for any but the most powerful telepaths to extend their range beyond that. He could do it though, but would only if absolutely needed. Releasing just one of those souls could increase his detection range six fold, but he was ever hesitant – Boris wanted to conserve them and use up their power only when he had no other choice.

  Just like that first time when he unleashed the full extent of his might, Boris tossed that Vaugn space station off orbit and into the atmosphere of the planet below like it was some crate full of scrap. All that power felt... exhilarating and would overwhelm anyone.

  Anyone else, but him.

  He kept the wailing souls under control and safely under the grip of his iron will. The telepath was not that arrogant as to forget the help of his wife Kera – her very presence gave him more focus and better control over his abilities and powers. Not a spiritual man, Boris nevertheless became aware of the powerful and benevolent sentient entity that his wife was in contact with, and quickly came to respect its aid.

  Was that the Universe? Almighty God? Probably. He didn’t care much though, as it was not whining about him slaughtering random baddies, butchering their minds in search of valuable information that could save countless of innocent lives. What Kera had shared with him was very similar to the beliefs of those Universalists – that all sentient life in the galaxy was part of some grand cycle or something.

  For him it didn’t matter that much, because those who stood on his way and threatened the security or well being of his wife were doomed from the get go. Boris’s head turned slowly and his eyes met with the inspiring gaze of their new crewmate, the Kil’ra morale officer Dozan.

  He was standing attention behind the captain’s command chair as it was per his Code, hands behind his back. With a calm posture, reassuring smile and gleam in his eye, the towering Kil’ra’s lips were moving slightly. Boris could hear, no, sense, as Dozan’s mind would quickly whisper certain lines at the very moment Starshatter’s bridge crew performed an action.

  “Success in our most virtuous venture friends! Your efforts will not falter in the face of adversity, since those who are standing bravely against Evil aren’t meant to!”

  He was preparing, reciting his battle chants in his head! He did so, and with such determination, with his mind open. Boris slowly came to the realization that this elder alien, this most dutiful ally of Humanity, was not only a peerless warrior – his mind was a Fortress! A shining beacon of hope in the darkness, the telepath doubted that any of his kind would be successful in even chafing at this man’s mental fortitude and Iron will to persevere.

  Boris had never been on a spaceship’s bridge during combat and was full of anticipation, especially with a full fledged morale officer present. The telepath inhaled slowly and fell into semi-concentration state, fully prepared to unleash his unseen, but all-too-real and deadly might.

  ________________________________________________________________________________

  Both starships began the slow and graceful crawl in preparation for the deadly dance of space combat. One was significantly bigger, its larger crew gave it the advantage of building prepared positions and scouting the entirety of the battlefield. The other had something else entirely.

  A vengeful crew commanded by a intrepid Dzenta’rii captain – such who had studied the entirety of his race’s ancient combat strategies, and was knowledgeable in the many, treacherous ways of warfare. The taz’arans thought themselves capable of deceit, and certainly they were an able adversary. But none could surpass the Dzent’a when it came to plotting the demise of their enemies, both on political, economical, and the bloodied fields of battle.

  Starshatter moved towards the coordinates Awesome last tagged the TA’s, and evaded the portable beam turrets, but slowly. Omasa’s ship was already there, hiding behind a cover made of seemingly randomly floating, overlapping debris.

  Both knew that this was the place where they’d fight to the death, but one ship had already lost the battle before it even began...

  ________________________________________________________________________________

  Vasilisa lovingly gazed at her husband’s back but only after checking her last course corrections. For the most time, thanks to her spacer’s discipline, she was able to control her swirling emotions and feelings while in her husband’s presence. After what she’d suffered to find him, the woman wasn’t keen on seeing Alric hurt, let alone losing him altogether.

  The very thought almost broke her concentration and she turned back, immersing herself again in sensor data-streams, touching the navi-controls ever so slightly when needed.

  Suddenly she noticed four slowly crawling sensor “bald spots”, created either by localized jamming fields, or by a starship’s main electronic warfare systems. Vasilisa instantly swiped the data towards Lilly’s Ops station, her hands now completely calm, laying on the controls in anticipation of further orders.

  “Cap, four coffins detected on main sensors!” – shouted Lilly after examining the data-stream – “Two on our port and two on our side; most probably dead launched torps Captain!”

  “Only four torps!? Well now, we would be bad guests should we refuse such a generous gift wouldn’t we?” – Anit’za smiled at Lilly and scratched his stubby beard – “Ghost em’ Lilly! I want those torps sleeping as newly born babies, ready for Awesome to go out and pick them up!” – he swiped the data-stream through the ship’s intranet and into his scout fighter’s mainframe – “Hear that pilot?”

  Awesome was already comfortable resting in ’Insanity’s’ cockpit, after fixing some of the damage that his armorplating had sustained. He also had fully reloaded its monstrous missile rack with a brand new ordinance of his choice. The fuel tanks were again full of soon-to-be blobs and he chuckled, remembering his most amazing ordeal on the derelict space station. The hamster ace pilot’s tiny gloved hands grabbed the controls of his ship – “Awesome is awesomely ready, captain Sir!” – he reported back, still chuckling as his ship exited the hangar, for the second time today.

  Lilly sighed, allowing herself one short grin, while her paws were dancing over the controls of her Ops station. She was a farmer yes, but nevertheless a capable scientist, and on top of that skilled with computers. Somewhat less than most, but still. Probably she would never be the master hacker most Ops officers dreamed of, Lilly was knowledgeable enough. By using the atypical Fringe colonist hacks, this bunny could stay ahead of some pansy ass taz’aran Sysop! One of her old scars itched but she successfully fought off the urge to scratch her face. They were no
w engaged in battle, and besides, she was a bunny – some itch was not gonna stop a dutiful Client from doing what had to be done!

  The yellowish glim of her station’s holo-displays revealed her now angry grin – one small creature fighting an invisible war against a huge enemy! Quickly, she broke through the localized jamming fields and hacked dead the already activated warheads of those torps. Instead of rapidly flying towards the hull of her starship, they now drifted motionless in space, waiting.

  Awesome’s fighter quickly picked them one by one, tugging them back into the safety of Starshatter’s hangar bay.

  Soon her sensors were overwhelmed by a sudden multi-pronged EWS attack – the enemy sysop (more likely sysops), tried to skilfully negate any advantage that their ship sensors had, and probably mask either another torp attack, or even an incoming space mecha wing.

  “Captain, the enemy is faking multiple sensor shadows! I am trying to clean our screens!” – Lilly pulled whatever processing power she could from her own EWS and started “limping” between Starshatter’s outer intranet and the attacker’s. She began sweating profusely while the pressure on her suddenly doubled, as the second enemy sysop bashed their intranet with a spike bot aimed at her own station.

  Smelly taz’aran bastards! Her paws were literally flying over the controls, and as she exhaled nervously, Dozan’s voice suddenly boomed, echoing on the bridge:

  “Excellence! The boon that all who fight for Peace and Justice shall receive!” – all could hear how his armored glove clenched – “Success is nothing but an inevitability for you! All who stand against the Life-stealers – Persevere! Watch how they fumble in battle against your ever increasing skill!” – and as her morale officer continued chanting Lilly suddenly saw – no, she envisioned a new way to attack in her mind! She half-turned around and shouted at Brynjar:

  “Bee – I need you to boost my systems, quickly! I’ve got something that will wipe their stupid sensor ghosties, and bounce back at them that hacking thingy they are stabbing our network with!” – Brynjar, without even asking his captain for permission, (probably because he knew that the answer would be a resounding yes) instantly switched one power unit from their “free” energy stored on the Shiva furnace capacitor, and into Lilly’s EWS mainframe.

  Creating a network “pocket” to lure her enemy’s bot into, she then slid their very attack back at them, without triggering the taz’aran cyber defenses in the process. The additional energy she used to overcharge the computing capabilities of her station, and the bonus in processing power combined with Dozan’s inspiring words wiped Starshatter’s sensor screens clean of the ghost targets.

  The strangest thing, however, happened at the end of her skillful manipulation of the taz’aran hack bot – something tweaked it instantly almost. And in a way she wasn’t able to nether do, nor envision. The attack pocket she’d quickly and haphazardly created was too, all but perfect. Lilly did not know enough about electronic warfare, and assumed that was but a fluke, beginners luck...

  Completely oblivious of that, Anit’za, on the other hand, was most happy with the outcome of their very first cyber warfare action. Most battles started with sysops slugging bots and many other nasties at each other’s ship networks. Despite her humble background, that bunny was skilled with computers and probably did that good because of her unorthodox colonist approach. She wasn’t a master hacker, yet, and the dzenta’rii captain gratefully nodded at their new morale officer, thanking him for his inspiring assistance.

  The main holo-display chose this moment to announce their enemy’s second move – another barrage of torps followed by a wing of TA’s flying in an inverted crescent formation. Anit’za smiled:

  “They are coming, and that can’t be everything! Am I right sysop?” – the captain turned toward Lilly as she was again pulling something off her stream of data packages, generously provided by Vasilisa’s station.

  “AHA! There is another full wing of tazzies lurking behind the torps! I can see them now! Their hangar crews used either cold launch, or that tazzie ship has tractor beam projectors. Clever, so very clever!” – she began sweating again, quickly realizing that without the help of Dozan and probably her insane luck, all of their attacks would’ve succeeded. Her ship’s sensors would’ve been overloaded with ghost targets. Then the torps, and those TA’s would’ve been both ripping holes in their hull now...

  She desperately needed more experience.

  Anit’za turned his inquisitive gaze and focused it on their enemies’ formation – “Gunnery officer, prepare the point defense battery to fire at the enemy and,” – he waved calmly at the now six torp signatures – “Leave those for our missile turret.”

  He scratched his chin again while slowly the seconds turned into a minute and then suddenly ordered – “If our young lady navigator would be so willing and swiftly turn our backs to the enemy. On my command perform the maneuver, fire that flack burst from our PD guns at the flanks of that idiotic crescent “formation”, commander Alric. Then,” – he glanced at Cat, who, during all of this was looking at him letting all of his words sink in. She turned towards the secondary weapon console and with a short leap sat behind the controls.

  “Then captain Sir, I will open fire with a barrage of plasma rockets aimed directly at the torps!” – punching the main armory controls Cat switched the ammo types, ordering the auto-loaders to remove the standard frag-missiles and replace them with such sporting plasma warheads. For the second time this day Anit’za felt that warm, fuzzy feeling in his gut. This must be what parents felt like when they saw how their sons and daughters achieved success in life.

  Instead of preparing for evasive maneuvers, Starshatter’s navigator, now perfectly calm and concentrated, reacted both with precision and excellence boosted by Dozan’s presence. Her hands swiftly turned the obedient starship after she heard the sudden, boisterous command:

  “Engage!”

  ________________________________________________________________________________

  Back on their bridge ’Empress Throne’ sysops did their very best, but somehow, neither their fake sensor shadows nor the all-insightful and insidious hack bot attack could even scratch their enemy’s defenses. Nevertheless Omasa’s plan was peerless, or that was what his XO had assumed, while secretly gnashing his teeth, seething with anger.

  Nedal spend all of that time back on Pion base... plotting. That of course didn’t help him much, since one of those two dropship pilots survived the hit he ordered on them. And then again, of course, that young and ambitious prick Omasa had to arrive just as he was about to jump station and escape with some pirate crew, concealed by the relative safety of the Deep Fringe expanse.

  He was now stuck in a most precarious position – being the future scape goat for his Lord Captain’s eventual failures. Oh, he knew very well how things worked; Nedal was a Lord Captain himself, and had used the occasional inbred idiot to take the heat for his failings. No, this time though it was he who was to become the patsy!

  He observed how the strangely inspired bridge crew worked with an almost unnatural efficiency, and fixated his hateful gaze on Omasa’s back. If only his eyes could kill!

  The two remaining wings of fully armed and refueled TA’s streaked towards the enemy vessel each holding their RPG’s in hand. Their Terran enemy had a little ship, no larger than a patrol corvette, and from that distance even their powerful sensor array couldn’t pinpoint what armament it exactly had. Nedal could safely wage his measly decat allowance that the ship had railguns and superior laser weapons. No fighters though – that single attack scout was something he wasn’t scared of. Despite what those ex-command frigate crewmen ranted constantly about, it was something that only the gullible and stupidly superstitious low ranking taz’arans could fall for. One single genetically inferior Terran, flying a lightly armed fighter certainly would not pose danger to a vessel of this size!

  Even with his escape plan failing, Nedal still had some connection
s left and managed to pull one last sneaky cargo transfer, right before they left Pion base. Inside a large container that the corrupt cargo master loaded on board the ’Empress Throne’, rested neatly snuggled one power armor of the latest design specs. That mech guaranteed victory – he had to ensure the loyalty of no more than half the crew, and then mutiny! There were many cases in which successful mutineers were able to escape deep inside the Fringe and became corsairs. It was a lucrative career, and Nedal needed any edge he could get. That power armor was such an edge. He was told that was the single other prototype in existence, while the first ever model was sent on some command frigate for “field tests”. Suddenly a disturbing thought hit him like a power mace straight between the eyes.

  Nedal’s hand twitched and he quickly checked the holo-files looking for that starship’s name but it was redacted from all of them! Probability of some backroom dealings with this design, and overselling it to as many a gullible noble captain or officer suddenly became an ever so evident reality for him.

  While Nedal was fretting over his unfortunate purchase, all bridge officers watched how their well prepared, clever, multi-pronged attack failed in a most flashy and spectacular manner. It happened so quickly that Omasa was perhaps the only one who actually realized what had transpired.

  He, and Nedal, who noticed something when their enemy fired his PD battery – it very much looked like two arms shooting with wrist mounted snub guns!

  Was it possible that this monster of a marine yet lived?!

  Certainly yes!

  The very thought made Nedal’s body twitch with most intense fear. Suddenly his knees buckled and he grabbed the nearest chair in a vain attempt to regain his composure.