“Good morning, ladies,” he announced. “I’m going to be brief about this because you get eight hours of sleep before we fold space to the front. Roger, hand me the projector.” The orderly gave him the small box. The captain activated it and showed them the outline of a star system similar to the myriad of the ones under the rule of humanity. A small sun was highlighted a particular color with two planets encircled, one blue the other red. He used a pointer to indicate them as he talked.
“These are Brontis Alpha and Brontis Beta, two planets in the latest system under attack by the wasps,” he explained. “As you might guess, Beta is red because it’s controlled by the wasps. Alpha was still held by our side, but we lost contact with it two standard days ago. We assume the enemy has taken it.”
“You young ladies have the unenviable position of seizing a wasp ship for examination. As of yet, we don’t have a one for study, so you get the honor of capturing the first one. We’ve been unable to send much into the fight and the local colonial garrison is doing its best to hold out against the wasps.”
“This is a typical wasp destroyer,” he explained as he displayed a small oblong and colorful shape on the screen. It resembled something nature had never finished building and Shakti wondered how the wasps mad it.
“Weapon systems are toward the front, propulsion in the rear. Best we can figure is that they don’t know how to fold space to get from point A to point B. None of our ships with space folding ability has been captured; the crew blew them up rather than allow the wasps to take possession. Their ships are organic in construction and replenish the outer hall by growing a new superstructure. We don’t know how they do this, but we intend to find out.”
“So how are we supposed to board this thing?” Shakti asked him while looking at the projection. “We trained for boarding on human ships and they don’t look a bit like this.” Her hair was tied in braids, as was every other warbride who elected to keep their hair long.
“We’ve identified something which resembles an entry port,” he explained. “You will all be issued a body suit which has its own protective armor. We’re going to tie one of these ships down by isolation and then do our best to knock out its offensive weapons. Shouldn’t be too hard since we’re dedicating four destroyers and two corvettes to do the job. When we’ve surrounded the ship, we’ll send you across in a shuttle. Don’t worry about the pilot. He’s a seasoned veteran. Then we’ll send you out. You’ll have everything you need to blow the port open and swarm into the ship. We think there is an airlock behind the port, so you’ll need to seal the entry point once you’re inside. We’ll wait until you tell us the ship is taken before sending anyone else end to help.”
“Fighting in zero gravity?” Durga asked him. “We didn’t train for it on the ground. What if we run into something we didn’t expect on the inside?”
“Then you kill it,” he snapped. “Look you’ll have everything you need. Even the boots will clamp down on this organic surface, so don’t worry.”
They did.
There was no gravity, so the warbrides slept in their harnesses. Because of the lack to “pull”, all they had to do to get a decent sleep was hitch into the strapping system on the harnesses. Waking up while drifting through a room in the absence of gravity could be very scary. Nervous, they locked down for the night and waited for the wake-up call from the captain.
Mangi drifted into a deep sleep although it took her several hours. In her dreams, she saw the face of the rapist who attacked her when she was very young. She woke several times that night, but managed to avoid screaming.
The next morning they awakened to the sound of the captain telling them space was about to be folded to the orbit of Beta. Five minutes later, they were locked into battle positions. Shakti went down the line and made sure each of her women were ready. They held the arms of their stalls tight. The distortion caused by the Schrodinger generator pushed them to a destination light years away. Shakti hated the sensation she felt when space collapsed around her.
An eternity later, they were back in normal space. None of them understood how the jump drive worked. All they knew was it took them across the void of imperial space. Shakti saw Kamala frown when the jump was over. She wasn’t the only one disturbed by the passage.
“Congratulations, Ladies,” the captain’s voice boomed through the audio system. It’s time to suit up; we have arrived at the right moment. I’ve been given word by our emperor’s favorite admiral that a wasp destroyer is isolated from the rest of their attack force. Time to suit up because the shuttle is about to leave.”
It took them a half hour to climb into their suit armor. Each suit was a self-contained system which provided air and waste removal. The exterior was hardened to protect the wearer against a small nuclear blast and provided them with the all the free movement they needed to fight. Each warbride had her name stenciled on the helmet and right shoulder. Shakti observed the division symbol was placed on the left shoulder. It was one way to tell who was your co-wife and teammate.
This shuttle was a small vehicle designed for space maneuvers between ships. It didn’t have any landing gear, as it was never intended to reach the surface of a planet. Most of its propulsion was provided by chemical rockets. Shakti made certain the warbrides were in position and with their weapons sheathed and ready. She could feel the sweat dripping and recycled inside her suit armor.
Each of them was issued a weapon. The prefect who recruited them watched and made notes of what kind of weapons they used in The Games and made certain the lethal equivalent was provided while training and on the corvette. Shakti found a short sword in a scabbard next to her. She tied it over her suit while locking the small buckler shield on her back. Big Kamala found a halberd waiting for her. She held with both hands as she took her position on the line inside the shuttle. Most of the women were qualified with a short sword and shield for the close range fighting they expected on the wasp destroyer. They took their positons standing inside the shuttle since the exit would be quick. Dharma was the only one given a crossbow.
“Damn, but this suit hurts my tits,” Bravi said to Tara as they made ready. “I should have taken out my nipple rings.”
“You left them in?” Tara asked. She’d noticed them on Bravi several times, but never said anything.
“Of course, I’ve had them in so long I can’t imagine being without.”
“Time to go!” was the only warning they were given by the pilot as the small ship launched from the corvette. The warbrides could not see the exterior of the shuttle. Shakti felt the lunge and displacement in her suit as the shuttle moved into position. The display in her helmet showed a large orange blotch indicated as the access point they needed to use on the wasp ship. She and Durga carried a portable patch to seal it once they were on the inside.
Suddenly there was a flash on her display and the blotch turned into a pit of blackness. “Port open,” her pilot told her over the helmet audio. Get ready for the drop.”
She was about to mention how relative the concept of drop was in a no-gravity situation, when the floor of the shuttle opened up and they were hurled out of it.
Shakti landed on the soft exterior of the wasp ship and looked around to see the other warbrides dropping out of the shuttle. They were in position. As the women brought their weapons into a protective stance, Shakti looked up and saw the corvette vanish under the horizon of the wasp ship. The shuttle itself was moving back to its mothership, leaving them alone on the wasp destroyer. The destroyer rotated slowly, which is how it simulated gravity on the inside.
The hole blown open by the shuttle was directly in front of them. Shakti signaled to the other warbrides and ventured down inside. She waited for them to get into it before taking out the seal. When the last of the women were inside the port, she activated her exterior helmet light, took out the large seal, and patched the door blown free by the explosion. Now they were shut inside the lair of the wasps. There was enough oxygen in the suits
for three hours, so this needed to be a quick operation.
The inside of the airlock resembled an organ of some kind. The walls pulsed with life and Shakti wondered if they would bleed if cut. She reached out and touched one. The wall felt hard, but seemed to retract from her gloved hand.
“Bravi,” Shakti transmitted, “Do you think you can blow this hatch open?” She was the demolitions expert for the team.
“Give me a few minutes to plant the charges,” she said. Still small even in her suit armor, Bravi climbed over to the inner hatch.
The patched outer hole would prevent any air from escaping to the outside of the ship. Bravi slapped three charges at the middle of the door. She indicated everyone else to stand back. The explosion was directed outward, but would be canceled by the rush of air into the lock where they waited.
They all turned their backs when a powerful thud pounded through their suits. A wave of air rushing into the void slammed them against the wall. Shakti turned around to see the inner door gone and the way to the wasp ship open. It was time to go and meet the enemy. She unsheathed her sword and attached the shield to her other arm.
The port into the ship was reduced to a black hole of twisted metal. Shakti looked at it. The fragments on the floor moved around in circles. Whatever they used to make the ship was alive, although it wasn’t obvious. She watched two pieces of metal crawl around for two seconds. Then she returned her attention to the problem at hand.
Shakti, as commander of the warbrides, led the way inside with Durga following behind. She climbed through the blasted door and looked around. There didn’t seem to be any enemy forces inside the corridor where she positioned herself, but it could all change. Down was in the direction of the hole where the inner door rested before the charge blew it off. Her display told her the relative positon of each of the warbrides as they emerged from the hole. Smoke drifted down the corridor from the explosion. She listened on her internal helmet audio for any movement in either direction.
The corridor possessed an organic structure, just as the airlock had. The ship appeared to have been grown somewhere and not built out of metal in the human fashion. It occurred to her they might be the first group of humans inside one of these things. She prayed they would also be the first group to make it out alive.
“Can I get Kamala up here?” she said over the audio. “I want you and that big halberd guarding my back.” There was a scurrying sound and the big woman pushed her way through the other warbrides to get behind Shakti.
“We’re going forward and taking control of this destroyer,” she informed the other women. “I don’t know what’s ahead, but we’ll find out soon enough. Keep in mind we’re in their territory right now and they hold all the advantages. Give me a count-off starting with Durga.” The other warbrides gave her an audio count. It was important to know who was still with you.
They walked down the corridor in column formation, weapons out and ready. The corridor made a few quick turns and her suit computer recorded them for quick exit if it became necessary. She kept one eye on the air supply. It might be possible to breathe the atmosphere inside the ship, but she didn’t want to chance it. The wasps could poison the air. Bioluminescent light filtered from the top of the corridor as they moved down it with stealth.
“They have to know we’re here,” Shakti told the other warbrides. “There is no way we could have entered this place by surprise unless the navy took out all their sensors on the inside and I don’t think it happened.” She still walked down the corridor with her sword out in front. Shakti carried the small shield in a high guard. It was a position that was both defensive and threatened anyone in front of her.
Her other concern was the wasps might use some kind of pulsed energy weapon inside the destroyer. So little was known about wasp technology, anything was possible.
The danger presented by projectile weapons inside a space ship brought back the ancient arts of sword fighting a thousand years ago. One bullet could kill everyone if it was fired inside a space ship, which prompted the rediscovery of blade technology in the early days of the empire. Seasoned troops knew how to fight at close range with swords and shields. Shakti expected the same conditions took place on the wasp side too.
They emerged into a large room with a dome-shaped roof. It had several corridors which fed into it. The center of the room was dominated by biomechanical equipment, which served a function they didn’t understand. The warbrides gathered around a wall display and Shakti had Mangi take an image of it for later study.
Then they saw the first wasps on board the ship.
They emerged from the corridor nearest to them and stood four feet high. It seemed to be the most height their evolutionary system could accommodate. More of them poured out of the corridor until the eleven warbrides faced off to fifty or more wasps. It wasn’t easy to count.
They appeared to resemble each other and Shakti could not tell if there were any physical differences between them. At Solace, the trainers showed them images of dead wasps, so they could recognize the forms. The wasps were thin, black and had insectoid features. Anatomical studies showed an exoskeleton supported by an inner frame. They stood upright on two articulated legs and possessed four sets of arms; two at waist and another set at the shoulders. One theory was that the extra arms were left over from legs. All the insects found on Terra crawled around the ground on six legs.
They carried no weapons, but their forelegs were sharpened and argument with metal barbs. This was their equivalent of a warrior class.
“You think we should offer them surrender terms?” Durga transmitted to Shakti. “Seems inhuman to attack without offering the chance to give us the ship.”
The answer came from the front ranks of the wasp troops. They each had a small set of antenna on their heads. The antennae on the front ranks lowered and the first row lunged forward at the warbrides. They were expecting this, so it didn’t catch them by surprise.
Kamala’s halberd came down hard on the first wasp before it reached their front lines. The blade on her elaborate ax chopped through the head of the creature and sent green fluid all over the floor. The room filled with the sounds of metal swords as they slashed at chitin bodies while the wasps attacked them. The moment Kamala cleaved the first wasp open she use the spike on the end of her halberd to spear another wasp as it charged behind the first one.
The wasps continued to charge; somehow, they didn’t understand what they were up against that day. Shakti swung her sword down and to the right, slicing into the leg of one of the creatures. It went down with an audible buzz, which filled the room. A jagged edge of a forearm swiped up against her head, brushing across her faceplate, but the material on her helmet protected her from injury. She went low and plowed into the creature with her shield, sending it back into the ranks of the other ones.
“To your right!” Durga yelled over the radio and Shakti swung in that direction just in time to cleave a wasp down the center as it tried to blindside her. The room was full of them, trying to outmaneuver the warbrides who kept close rank and used their shields to repel the first wave of attack. The halberds swung from the rear and chopped away at the second rank. It which beat a fast retreat and collided with the third wave. Shakti ordered a charge and her women powered into the confused ranks of the wasps and begin to kill them with precision. Green fluid coated the walls and floor, making it difficult to see where they were moving.
She could see no command structure on the side of the enemy. The wasps just knew how to form a line and charge. Wave after wave flung itself at them, each time going down under the blades of the warbrides. Shakti glanced to one side and saw Kamala spin her poleax and slice repeatedly at the horde before her. The big woman was in a trance, a kind of state she’d only seen once before. It was on the game field back at the prison world. Now the outcome wasn’t based on their desire to get off the planet, just to survive. The warbrides had no trouble here, but the sheer level of physical activity would exhaust them
soon enough. All of the women were in the peak physical shape, but they could only swing and chop so long before exhaustion set in.
The first mistake came when Mangi lunged forward. She broke rank and ran into the horde. Shakti ordered her to fall back, but it was too late. She was a small woman, barely five feet in height, but the most aggressive of the warbrides. Two wasps were trying to pry her from the end of the line and wrap around it when Mangi’s concentration broke. She sliced into one and bashed the other with her round shield. She turned her sword on the other and gacked it on the midsection. Both wasps went down spouting green fluid all over her and the floor. Mangi turned and rushed into a group of ten wasps on the side. Shakti saw the rage in her face and again told her to fall back, but the small woman wouldn’t listen. Her rage had destroyed any battle sense left in her mind.
Mangi cut a path through the wasps, but second later they swarmed over her and attacked from all sides. This took the heat off the center and left of their flanks. Shakti ordered the left flank to close in and out maneuver the wasps, whose numbers were down to ten, although most of them were slashing at Mangi.
She tried to save her co-wife, but it was too late. Even before the warbrides had chopped the last of the wasps down, Mangi was laying in the floor, her red blood spilt from a myriad of cuts the wasps delivered to the joints in her body armor. The blood of their fallen co-wife mixed with the green fluid of the fallen wasps.
Shakti didn’t have to see the display inside her helmet; she knew Mangi was dead from countless wounds. There were no more wasps in the room, but they’d lost a warbride. The other women looked down at her, reflecting their fallen co-wife could have been any one of them.
“One down,” Shakti transmitted to the corvette, “Enemy engaged and destroyed, but there will be more.” She didn’t care if the transmission went through or not.
“What are you looking at?” she asked the other warbrides. “You see what happens when someone doesn’t follow orders in a fight? It could have you or you. Let it be a lesson. We’ll pick her up after we’ve taken this ship.” She saw the tears form on a few of the women, Mangi was loved by many of them and now she was gone.
Angels of Eternity: The Complete Novel Page 5