by Jake Bible
"General? You're not on that ship, are you?" Roak asked.
Half the fighters split off to pursue DTZ's ship and half continued to engage Roak's ship.
"I'm afraid there has been a structural reorganization within the GF," Gerber said. "I and most of the FIS did not make the cut. Luckily, Drop Team Zero had just returned to place their after action report when things went south."
"Welcome to the fringes of galactic life," Roak said.
"You can save your welcome for later, Roak," Gerber said. "Right now we have to handle these GF ships that are controlled by your Father."
"He's really not my… Fuck it. He's my father."
"Quite. As I was saying, we have to handle these GF ships then we should look into leaving before the Skrang destroyers reach us."
"The dots. Right," Roak said and switched the view shield's image back to that direction. "They're using normal engines. Why not just transport directly at us?"
The dots disappeared.
"Did you have to say that?" Hessa snarled.
"Skrang incoming!" Poq yelled.
Roak jumped. "I thought you were shut down!"
"Skrang incoming!" Poq yelled again.
Roak sighed.
Skrang incoming…
24.
It was nearly impossible to visually track the chaos and violence that filled the Borgon's view shield. There was so much plasma fire, so many missiles, and basically nothing but a view of pure carnage that Roak had to pick and choose where he looked or it became overwhelming. It was almost as bad as staring at trans-space.
Add to that the view never stayed the same since Hessa had the Borgon dipping and diving, climbing and careening, swerving and swooping in and out of the chaos, and Roak almost reached out and shut the view shield down completely.
But then he wouldn't get to watch a quartet of Skrang destroyers and several squadrons of Skrang fighters tear into the GF corvettes, GF carrier, and GF fighters. He wasn't one to pick sides, but he was definitely leaning towards the Skrang.
For the moment.
"Shields are at twenty-two percent," Hessa announced.
Bhangul made a yip noise and Poq just nodded up and down, over and over.
"Will that be enough?" Roak asked.
"No, it won't be enough!" Reck interrupted over the comm. "I'm on it!"
"Stay with the transport tech!" Hessa ordered. "You cannot fix the shields in time. We need to be able to leave, Reck!"
"We can't leave if we're blasted apart!" Reck responded.
"I've run the scenarios and Hessa is correct," Poq said, still nodding up and down, over and over. "The best use of your skills is in fixing the transport tech. You will waste time trying to repair the shields."
Poq undid his harness and stood up. The ship flipped upside down, but the android had engaged his mag boots and remained affixed to the bridge's deck.
"I will attempt to fix the shields while Reck continues working on the transport tech," Poq announced and slowly, carefully, completely upside down, made his way to the bridge doors.
"Good luck," Roak called after the android.
"There is not enough luck in the galaxy to get us out of this!" Bhangul cried. "I don't want to die on this ship, Roak!"
"Right there with you," Roak said. "But we don't get to choose our deaths, do we?"
"Choose our deaths! That's it!" Bhangul exclaimed. "Roak! Give me your pistol!"
"What? No!" Roak responded. "I'm not going to let you shoot yourself, Bhangul."
"Since when are you so moral as to be against suicide?" Bhangul snapped.
"Moral? I couldn't care less about whether or not you take yourself out," Roak said. "I just don't want to accidentally get hit if you miss your head." Roak squinted at the Dornopheous. "Or wherever it is you'd shoot yourself. Where is your brain?"
Bhangul replied with a high-pitched screech as the ship took a hard hit and was sent tumbling end over end. The Dornopheus' body stretched and strained then a long tendril shot out and punched Roak in the shoulder.
"Hey! Keep your putty to yourself!" Roak yelled.
The tendril shot out again and hit Roak in the side. Just above where his Flott was holstered.
"Bhangul! Knock it off!" Roak yelled. He clamped a hand over his pistol just as Bhangul's tendril connected with the holster. "I mean it!"
More tendrils shot from Bhangul's body, all aimed at Roak's Flott.
"Do not make me shoot you!" Roak said, instantly realizing that that was exactly what Bhangul wanted him to do. "Hessa!"
"Deal with your own crap, Roak!" Hessa shouted.
Bhangul’s tendrils continued to assault Roak and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to remind himself not to shoot the Dornopheous. He was going to end up with a hole in his cheek.
Hessa finally righted the ship. Just in time for another steep dive to avoid colliding with a GF corvette. A GF corvette that was missing most of its aft end as well as a good portion of its mid-decks.
The Skrang were doing a masterful job of whooping some GF ass. Roak had to give them that.
The ship was once again level and fairly stable. Roak took the opportunity to undo his harness and lunge at the still flailing Bhangul. Putty arms tried to subdue Roak, but they couldn't get to him in time. Roak set the Flott to the completely unused stun setting.
"One chance, Bhangul," Roak said as he dodged putty slaps to his face. "I'm not joking!"
He didn't wait for a response. Roak shoved the Flott against Bhangul's midsection and squeezed the trigger. The Dornopheous' body became a rigid, solid mass of shivering putty. Bhangul's eyes both pleaded with and despised Roak.
Roak gave the Flott one more trigger squeeze then eased up the moment he was certain Bhangul was unconscious. He holstered his pistol and surveyed accomplishment.
"Well…shit," he said as Bhangul hung loose and semi-fluid in, on, and around the seat's harness. A harness that was not going to keep the being secure while unconscious. "Didn't think that through."
"Sit your ass down!" Hessa shouted.
The ship banked hard to starboard and Roak was flung up against the navigation console. He was still in his power armor, so he suffered no harm other than a small cut to the back of his neck. The navigation console, on the other hand…
"Roak! What are you doing?" Reck yelled over the comm. "I just got an alert that the bridge's navigation console is malfunctioning. I've taken it offline, but what in all the Hells is going on up there?"
"I slipped," Roak said as he picked himself up off the deck. "How's it going down-?"
"Can't talk!" The comm went silent.
Roak fished out some cable from a pouch on his armor's belt. He rushed to Bhangul, wrapped the Dornopheous as tightly as he could to the seat, then rushed back to his own seat, sat down, and strapped back in.
Just in time as the ship executed a series of barrel rolls. Roak lost count after sixteen. He almost lost the contents of his stomach too, but managed to at least control that part of his life and fate. The rest was really under Hessa's control.
The ship went pitch black again for a second then came back online.
Maybe everything else wasn't under Hessa's control…
"The Skrang are trying to hail us," Hessa announced.
"Good for them," Roak replied.
He gulped hard as the ship flew straight down the middle of a destroyed GF corvette. The entire ship had been hollowed out by Skrang firepower. All that was left was an empty hull and some of the superstructure. Hessa blasted the bits of superstructure that were in their way leaving just the hull behind.
They emerged from the ship and banked to port just missing a collision with a half dozen Skrang fighters pursuing three GF fighters. The Skrang didn't look to be the superior pilots, but the GF fighters weren't exactly flying at full potential.
"Father's control weakens the skills of those he takes over," Hessa commented. "He cannot rely on skill. He has to have volume."
"Which is why he'
s trying to take over as much of the GF as possible," Roak said. "Hey, Hessa…"
"I know," Hessa said.
The ship was flying straight at the GF carrier. The hangar doors were wide open, but all fighters had already been scrambled, so all Roak could see was empty space. Empty space that was getting closer by the second.
"You aren't thinking of flying into that ship, are you?" Roak asked.
Hessa did not respond.
"I'm going to rephrase that, Hessa," Roak said. "Do not fly us inside that ship!"
"I have an idea," Hessa said.
"I have a counter idea."
"You don't know what my idea is. How can you counter it?"
"Because flying inside that GF carrier is not a good idea!"
"I disagree."
"You don't get to disagree! I am ordering you not to fly us inside that ship! Hessa? Hessa!"
"Partners do not give partners orders."
"Eight Million Gods dammit…"
Hessa flew the ship directly into one of the open, empty hangars. She spun the ship around 180 degrees, fired aft missiles then rocketed straight back out of the hangar before the missiles detonated. They were about one hundred meters from the hangar opening when all the Hells broke loose.
"Will you look at that," Hessa said and switched the image in the view shield to the view behind the ship.
The GF carrier was exploding internally. Blasts of flame billowed out of the hull in random areas before the lack of atmosphere suffocated the fires. Bright flashes dotted the ship. Then it slowly began to dip downward, its nose aimed directly at Javsatem's upper atmosphere.
"That's going to be quite the reentry," Hessa said.
"Hessa, you should take a break and let me fly," Roak said. "Maybe run some diagnostics. You sound…off."
"Do I, Roak?" Hessa replied. "Because I feel great! Nothing like living in the moment to truly show an AI that they are alive!"
"Except… Never mind," Roak said. "You aren't going to let me fly, are you?"
"While I appreciate your concern, Roak, you do not have the capacity to pilot this ship through the chaos we are in," Hessa said. "Have a look."
Hessa switched the view from the carrier crashing into the planet below to a wide shot of the entire battle. Fighting ships filled the screen. Fire was everywhere then gone then reappearing somewhere else then gone. Plasma blasts crisscrossed everything. Missiles were loosed over and over and over. Nothing was static, nothing was still.
Roak grimaced.
"Yeah. You should keep the stick," Roak admitted. "I'll just sit tight."
"Great idea," Hessa said. "By the way, the Skrang are still hailing us."
"Let them hail," Roak said.
"I am wondering if we shouldn't at least hear them out," Hessa said.
"Are you listening to them now?" Roak asked.
"Hells no!" Hessa exclaimed. "I have no idea what code they may be hiding in that signal!"
"Then hearing them out is going to be tricky if we can't even trust answering their call," Roak said.
"I already thought of that," Hessa said. "I could isolate the comm system which would allow me to scan the incoming communication for any hidden code."
"That still puts you at risk," Roak said. "And you're flying the ship through…that."
Roak glanced at the battle they were immersed in. The view kept shifting, but the story was the same. Violent insanity.
The ship took a hard hit and the bridge went dark.
"Hold on!" Reck yelled over the comm. "I'm on it!"
Emergency lights kicked on, bathing Roak in red.
"That's not eery at all," Hessa said. "Reck, if you bypass-"
"I know what to do!" Reck replied.
"Then why hasn't she done it?" Hessa mumbled. "Oh, and shields are down to five percent."
"I thought Poq was on that?" Roak asked.
"He is, but we are sustaining too much damage for him to keep up," Hessa replied. "Every repair he makes is met with five malfunctions. We will lose shields.”
"Get us out of here, Hessa," Roak said. "I don't care where we go. Find us a planet in this system and put us down. Even if it isn't habitable, just put us down. You and Reck can fix the ship and then we'll reassess."
"May I be honest with you, Roak?" Hessa asked.
"I don't know if I want you to."
"You probably don't."
"Sure. Go for it. Can't make things worse."
"There is a planet on the far side of this system we could set down on. So what? We will be pursued."
"A planet is easier to hide on than out here in open space."
"Yes, but the honesty part is I do not think the ship will make it there."
The emergency lights flickered.
"Your point?" Roak asked.
"I'll put us down on Javsatem," Hessa said. "It is no longer a stable planet due to the fact a GF carrier has just impacted with the surface which has caused tectonic shifts that make almost all land masses unviable. But there is a small island in the middle of one of the boiling lakes that may be stable enough for the short term. Long term would mean certain destruction."
"Good plan. Except there has to be a drawback," Roak said.
"Besides the fact that the GF carrier colliding with the surface is slowly tearing the planet apart?"
"Besides that."
"Yes, well, the drawback is we will be easy to spot, our ship is severely damaged, so a quick escape will be impossible, and if the GF ships fire planet killers, well…"
"We'll be sitting nufts," Roak finished for her.
"It will be a race to repair the ship before we are targeted and destroyed."
"Any other options?"
"We are all out of options. We stay here and fight to stay alive or we land down there and scramble to stay alive. The odds of success are only slightly better if we land."
"By how much?"
"About eight percent."
Roak thought. He didn't take long since they didn't have the luxury of time.
"What's your gut tell you?" Roak asked.
"I do not have a-"
"Hessa! What does your gut tell you!" Roak shouted.
"We land!" Hessa shouted back.
"Then do it."
The ship shook again and the emergency lights flickered, flickered, died. They booted back up less than a second later, but were considerably weaker than before. The image out the view shield shifted to show Javsatem. Roak couldn't see an impact crater from the GF carrier, but it wasn't hard to tell where the huge ship had collided with the planet. A cloud of dust and debris about a thousand kilometers wide filled a good portion of the planet's atmosphere.
"I'll avoid that," Hessa said and sent the ship down towards the surface of the planet.
"Roak? Where are you going?" Motherboard called over the comm. "There's nothing left down there!"
"There's nothing left up here, either," Roak said. "I don't know about you, but we're one major hit away from being obliterated."
"Our shields are holding, but we're out of missiles and the plasma cannons are going to shut down soon," Motherboard replied. "We may have to follow you down."
"Find your own repair spot," Roak said. "No need to draw more fire to us."
"Thanks for the camaraderie," Motherboard said.
"Really?" Roak laughed. "Camaraderie?"
"Alright. Maybe it will be hard to trust us for a while," Motherboard said. "But we're in the same situation, Roak. We need to band together."
"Let us get our ship back in order then we can talk about banding together," Roak said. "Stay safe, Motherboard. I do hope we can have a face to face at some point. I have those words waiting."
Roak killed the comm.
"The nerve," Hessa huffed. "Camaraderie, my ass."
"Right there with you," Roak said. "Reck? Poq? Hold on. We're going to land on Javsatem to try to buy us enough time to get repairs done."
"Land? But our shields are almost gone," Poq replied. "We m
ay not survive reentry."
"We sure as terpigshit won't survive up here," Roak said. "Hessa, get us the fuck out of this mess."
"Yes, Roak, I am already doing that," Hessa said.
"Reck?" Roak called. "You strapped in?"
There was no response.
"Reck?"
Still no response.
Roak started to unstrap his harness, but the latches wouldn't unlock.
"Hessa?" Roak called.
"Stay put, Roak," Hessa said. "This will be bumpy."
"Reck's not answering."
"I know."
"I should check on her."
"Stay put."
"Hessa!"
"Stay put!"
Roak had no choice since he couldn't undo the harness straps, so he stayed put.
The gloves of his power armor began to crush the armrests of his seat.
25.
The planet's surface was almost as unstable as being in the fight above Javsatem, but Roak ignored the instability and was up on his feet the second the ship touched ground.
"Talk to me, Hessa!" Roak yelled as he rode the lift down to the med bay deck. "Why isn't she answering?"
"She is wounded, Roak," Hessa said.
"I'm guessing that," Roak said. "How bad?"
"Bad enough that I had to put her in a med pod," Hessa said.
"HOW BAD?" Roak roared.
"You'll see…"
Roak squeezed through the gap in the lift doors the moment they hinted at opening. He raced to the med bay, skidding to a halt in front of the one occupied med pod.
"Where are her arms?" Roak asked.
"She tried to do too much, too fast," Hessa said. "She became tangled in some of the machinery when we took a direct hit."
"Can you… Can you fix her?"
"I can try."
"Can you fix her while you are also fixing the ship?"
"Yes. But not the transport tech. That truly needs her…hands."
"Eight Million Gods dammit…"
Roak took a deep breath, patted the med pod, then left.
"Where do you need me the most?" Roak asked. "Helping Poq? Or should I try to fix the transport tech?"
"You do not know how to fix the transport tech," Hessa replied.
"You can talk me through it!" Roak shouted.
"I can't. There are aspects to Reck's modifications that I have not fully analyzed yet. We could make the damage worse."