by Charles Nall
The Epsilon warships were beaten and bruised, but their hulls were structurally sound. No major hull breaches were opened by the enemy fire.
As the two forces collided, the Free Epsilon Militia warships broke off in different directions. Amaterasu kept moving forward, raking the undersides of the attacking force with mass drivers and rotary cannon fire. Inari cruised to the left of the invaders and Kouzui Maru and Fuji glided to the right.
The ISF warship group used maneuvering thrusters to turn around and pursue Amaterasu. Amaterasu fired thrusters in different directions, trying to fly erratically as possible to try to dodge incoming coil cannon shots.
Amaterasu, still moving forward at full burn, cut its main thrusters. Amaterasu turned around to face the approaching enemy, still moving its previous direction at the same speed.
A coil cannon shot from the ISF cruiser Monitor pierced the shields of Amaterasu and breached through the fore hull of Amaterasu. The slug broke through the ship and exited out the back. Debris billowed from the wound. Damage control teams were scrambled and emergency doors closed on the affected decks. The slug didn’t penetrate any essential systems, but did cause a tremendous loss of life as it tore through the cruiser.
Captain Hayato Suzuki tried to remain standing as everything violently shook from the impact. “Damage report!”
Commander Melody Kelly glanced over a nearby console. “We lost two of our starboard coil cannons!”
“Prep the port cannons!” Suzuki ordered. “We can’t let them take Epsilon!”
Amaterasu’s two remaining coil cannons recharged and reloaded. The tactical officer of the warship aimed carefully. Two slugs erupted from the cannons. One of the shots annihilated an ISF corvette and then continued past the ISF warships. The corvette wasn’t the actual target, but a small victory for the Epsilon forces regardless. The second slug did hit the intended target. The tactical officer targeted the Europa to hopefully cause a tremendous explosion to disable the invader’s shields. The slug tore straight through the middle of the jumpship and pierced the main hyper-drive system. Fires sputtered in and out all over the ship. White flashes emitted from the husk of the ship that was slowly breaking apart. The ISF warships attempted to maneuver away from the jumpship as its hyper-drive system began to overload.
The other Epsilon warships continued flying to the sides of the invaders, unleashing their own weaponry.
The friendly dreadnought Fuji maneuvered to its side and unloaded its forward coil cannons. One of the slugs broke through the shielding and continued through both the Hyperion and Prometheus. The damage was not critical but knocked shields offline causing the follow-up damage to do tremendously more damage across the hulls. Fuji fired a series of torpedoes that exploded along the fragile hull of Hyperion.
A white flash erupted from the enemy jumpship Europa. The invaders had attempted to move away from the doomed jumpship, but the enemy warship Manchester did not get far enough away. The blast from Europa knocked the Manchester’s shields offline as well as many other systems. The Epsilon defenders turned their weapons onto this destroyer, hoping to do more damage until the shields came back online.
The battle had broken apart. The warships were not flying together, but had separated into groups of battling ships that orbited over the planet of Epsilon.
Fuji danced with Tucson and Hyperion.
Amaterasu battled with Monitor. Manchester flew nearby, still recovering.
Kouzui Maru was engaged with Seattle.
Inari and Prometheus traded weapon fire.
Europa was a heap of scrap.
The chaos continued over the independent world of Epsilon. The Free Epsilon Militia and Interstellar Federation continued to smash into each other. The orbital cannons of Epsilon were tracking the fight, in case the ISF broke through the defensive Epsilon forces. The orbital cannons were not firing upon the fight as of yet, the risk of friendly fire was too high.
Madcat-2 was flying with the Kouzui Maru. The Marauding Mad Cats were blasting enemy fighters that were attempting to disable the Kouzui Maru. The battle was dizzying, as fighters and corvettes zipped around the Epsilon destroyer.
“Nice shootin, Ed!” yelled Teresa as Madcat-2 destroyed an enemy fighter.
Seemingly to avenge the fallen fighter, an enemy corvette approached and fired upon Madcat-2. The enemy corvette and Madcat-2 began their deadly dance.
ISF fighters swarmed all over the Epsilon dreadnought. The fighters knocked out most of the shielding on the port side of the ship. ISF warships Tucson and Hyperion exploited the weakness and fired mass drivers across the hull. The hull of Fuji was sundered from the explosions ripping across it. Enough damage was done to disable the warship. It kept flying at its previous speed, but couldn’t return any weapon fire. The ISF didn’t leave the helpless ship alone, but continued unloading into the wounded warship. Fuji erupted into shrapnel.
Madcat-2 and the enemy corvette traded weapon fire. The two corvettes weaved around other skirmishing fighters. The rotary cannons were at full blast, the rounds ricocheting off energy shielding. The two corvettes spiraled around Kouzui Maru. A mass driver slug bounced off the shielding of the ISF corvette. However, this overheated the shield generator and the shields dropped. Edwin White unleashed another salvo of mass driver rounds that ripped through the enemy corvette. It quickly withdrew from the fight and flew toward Seattle.
Teresa growled, “No, bitch! You aren’t getting away that easy! Follow that ship!”
“Reese... she’s flying to enemy territory,” Knave pointed out.
“Bring her down!” she commanded.
Madcat-2 pursued the enemy corvette, still unloading weaponry. The ISF corvette tried its best to evade the weapon fire. Several cannons along Seattle’s hull switched from firing toward Kouzui Maru to the Madcat-2. Madcat-2 launched a mass driver slug that blew directly through the ISF corvette. The enemy corvette lost most of its main systems and tumbled toward Seattle. Madcat-2 disengaged and flew back toward the chaos over Kouzui Maru.
The enemy corvette’s crew scrambled to get its systems back online. Several shield generators on the corvette started functioning again. This was a costly mistake. In a space battle, corvettes and starfighters configure their own shields to the same secret frequency as their warships so they can harmlessly bypass the energy shielding for landing. The warship did not have time to change any frequencies. Instead of colliding on the shielding, the corvette crashed into Seattle itself causing more damage than if it had only collided with the shields. The explosion outright destroyed two of the warship’s shield generators, disabling shielding around the impact zone. Seattle tried to maneuver so that its wound was not facing Kouzui Maru, but Kouzui Maru’s command staff exploited the weakness. Weapon fire exploded across the already tender area of the hull. Explosions ripped across Seattle. The warship did not tear apart completely but was disabled for the time being due to the heavy damage.
A coil cannon shot from Monitor breached the engine room of Amaterasu. The Epsilon battle cruiser lost main power. Luckily, the hyper-drive system was not compromised from the damage. A majority of Amaterasu’s maneuvering thrusters were already disabled. Although the ship was still moving forward at a tremendous pace, the next enemy coil cannon shot would be significantly easier to aim.
Commander Kelly groaned, “We’re getting hammered out here.”
The lights on the bridge went dark. A few emergency lights illuminated the area.
“We lost main power,” Kelly tapped on a console. “Rerouting backup systems.”
“Can you get one of the coil cannons working?” Suzuki asked.
“Probably, sir. Shouldn’t we try to get our thrusters back online first? It will take a significant amount of power to get the cannon operational.”
Suzuki studied a sputtering holographic projection of the battle. He noted that the ISF warship Manchester had recovered from its injuries and was quickly approaching Amaterasu. He shook his head. “No. I need tha
t coil cannon.”
Kelly nodded. “I just need a few seconds.”
Manchester was moving at an extremely fast pace, with its main thrusters burning blue. It flew at an angle in front of the damaged Amaterasu and unloaded weapons into Amaterasu’s hull. Manchester was about to fly into the sights of Amaterasu’s single functional coil cannon.
“Fire!” Suzuki commanded.
The cannon fired. The strike blew through Manchester. The strike impacted the bow of the destroyer hard at an angle. Manchester was knocked to its side. The rear engines were still at full burn. The coil cannon strike altered the trajectory of Manchester. The destroyer was now heading straight toward Monitor.
Manchester collided with Monitor, easily overcoming the energy shielding. The impact rocked Monitor at the same time its coil cannons fired, causing the coil cannon slugs to barely miss Amaterasu. Manchester broke apart as it continued to penetrate into Monitor. Manchester finally exploded, causing a great gash in the side of Monitor.
Inari kept firing its weapons through the wounded side of Prometheus. The damage was extreme. Prometheus turned at full burn toward Inari. Inari tried to maneuver out of the way, but the two warships broke into each other. The hull of Inari buckled and weapon caches across the ship exploded. The entangled warships tumbled in space and began to break apart. There was no way to tell the two ships apart–they had combined into a flaming mass of debris. A final explosion from the hyper-drive system of Prometheus obliterated both warships.
Teresa Day’s crew tried their best to defend Kouzui Maru. There were too many enemy fighters. The energy shields inevitably went down.
The heavily damaged ISF cruiser Monitor aimed its coil cannons again at the disabled Amaterasu. Only one of the coil cannons was still operational, even though a huge wound went across the cruiser. Before the ISF cruiser could get the coil cannon shot off, Kouzui Maru flew across Monitor and ripped it apart. The victory was short-lived, as a coil cannon slug from Tucson broke through Kouzui Maru and completely disabled it. The damage was not critical, but now the warship was in the same situation as Amaterasu.
The Epsilon defense force had fought valiantly, but the two remaining warships were disabled. The invading warship Seattle was heavily damaged and disabled for now but still a potential threat. Hyperion was heavily damaged and Tucson was slightly damaged. The Epsilon orbital cannons began firing heavy mass drivers toward the ISF forces. The mass driver slugs mostly missed their targets. The defenses would most likely not be enough to defend the planet from the invaders.
Teresa sighed in defeat. “We’re effed. We need to spin up the drive and get out of here before we’re next!”
“Wait... I’m detecting... gravitons?” Knave said.
A Confederate hypership materialized into the battle, accompanied by two Confederate cruisers.
“I didn’t detect them on my sensors until just now!” Knave said.
Teresa smiled. “Of course. The stealth technology! I didn’t realize that technology actually was still in use.”
The Confederate cruisers blew Seattle apart. The two remaining ISF warships hastily retreated from the battle, as mass drivers and coil cannon slugs flew past them. The invaders attempted to speed-jump away. The fighters and corvettes that were still battling also tried to escape. Madcat-2 blew apart several retreating fighters.
A message was broadcast to any ship that would accept it from the Confederate warships.
“This is Captain Ito of the Confederate States of Orion. There was a time we controlled this planet. We, however, allowed Epsilon to become independent. We cannot stand idly by while our brothers perish. They are still our brothers. We have honor, something this Interstellar Federation will never have. We will support the independent Epsilon. And we support the Star Republic and those who resist against this new Federation. We made mistakes, we admit, but our next course of action is not a mistake.”
The ISF warships jumped into hyperspace, leaving behind the majority of the enemy fighters and corvettes. The remaining forces were doomed.
Captain Ito continued, “Go. Go and tell your masters that we will not stand by as the galaxy turns to darkness. The road ahead will be paved with our blood, but we will fight with honor! We ask the entire galaxy to stand with us. Stand with the Resistance! The Orion Confederation has declared war upon the Interstellar Federation!”
Dome 5, Chryse Planitia
Mars
Orion Confederation Space
Riko Maeda was tossed into the building. This dome had similar tiny buildings for housing the inmates. This building was rather spacious compared to most of the shacks she was used to. There was a roof made of salvaged metal. A bright lamp on the side of the room gave the room its only light. Several brick pillars kept the roof stable.
Raj Sarin called out to his men, “I’m gonna... interrogate her. You guys stand guard, don’t let anyone in.” He looked at Riko. “Or out.”
“Come on boss, can’t we at least touch a little bit?” asked one of his men.
“You’ll have your chance, damn. Now get the hell out of here.”
The guards exited the room. Raj shut a door behind him and slid a crossbar into position to lock the door.
Riko hesitantly backed away from Raj. She backed up into a flimsy table. Flies buzzed around rotten fruit on the table. Riko wondered how the flies got there.
“Listen, I’m sorry for how I have acted,” Raj said. “You are beautiful. A fallen angel. You have to know what I want. I have power here, you can rule this dome with me. You shouldn’t resist.”
“Sorry, I’ll have to decline your tempting offer.”
A large amount of mechanical equipment was on the right side of the room. The majority of the parts were broken and charred.
“What do you have there?” Riko asked, looking at the equipment.
“A collection of parts from the transport that delivered our weapons,” Raj said. “Our bounty. You are free to look through it for anything you’d like. If you let me have what I want, first.”
“Again, no thanks.”
Raj lifted his shirt, revealing a pistol that was resting just inside his pants. “You are making this much harder than it has to be, bitch.”
“Look, you don’t have to do this.”
“I do. What? You think I’m just gonna squander this opportunity? If I don’t, someone else will. I will not throw a tasty piece of meat to the wolves.”
“And you? You aren’t a wolf?”
“I’m the Alpha. I make the rules.” Raj pulled his weapon. It was a military-grade slug thrower, probably from the transport wreckage as well.
He placed the pistol to her forehead. “I make the rules.”
“I’d rather die.”
“There’s less fun in that. I’m sated on murder for now.” He stepped closer and smelled Riko’s hair. He inhaled deeply. “I thirst for something else.”
He stepped away and twirled his gun in his hand. “Take it off. Take it all off.”
“No,” Riko stated.
The sound of the weapon startled Riko. She closed her eyes.
“The next one won’t miss.”
Someone beat on the door. “Boss?! Boss?!”
Raj called out, “Everything is fine. Don’t mind the noises.” He grinned.
Riko was shaking. “You—you said it yourself, you... you don’t want murder.”
“You’ll stay plenty warm for a few minutes after your life leaves you. Take it off or you die. Do it.”
Raj Sarin took his shirt completely off, revealing a toned chest with impressive abs. A tattoo of a dragon coiled around his chest. The man would have been attractive if he hadn’t been living under this dome. And if he hadn’t been aiming the pistol at Riko.
“Back up,” he said.
She backed away from the table, toward the back wall.
He placed his weapon on the table and unlatched his belt. He pulled his pants down. He was wearing nothing underneath.
Raj smi
rked. “You like what you see? Take your effing clothes off.”
It was now or never. Riko leaped at Raj and began pummeling at him with her fists. He did not budge. He laughed at every strike Riko landed.
He finally grabbed her by the hair and growled in her ear. “I said... take it off...”
Tears welled up in her eyes.
He pushed her away, toward the wall. “Do it. I own you now.”
Riko began taking the rags off of her. It was hardly a striptease, but Raj seemed to enjoy it. Her stomach churned, but she managed to keep the vomit down.
Riko eyed a shard of metal from the transport lying on the ground near her, just out of reach.
“Exquisite. Truly an angel.” Raj approached her.
Riko continued stripping.
“Don’t worry. You are safe. You’ll be safe. I think I love you,” Raj said.
She kicked her pants off toward the shard of metal she had noticed before.
“Turn around. Bend over.”
Riko bent over. Raj grabbed her hips and moved her into position. He pulled her hair.
Her foot was still close enough to the pant leg of her pants she had kicked off. The pants had caught onto a sharp edge of the metal. She maneuvered a foot on top of the pant leg.
Raj entered Riko and groaned.
Riko ignored the sensation.
Riko quickly dragged her foot back toward her, pulling the pants toward her. The pants had caught onto the metal piece. The metal shard scraped along the floor toward Riko. Raj didn’t seem to notice. She reached out and grabbed the metal with her hand.
She quickly pulled Raj out of herself and slashed Raj across his neck with the metal. He stumbled back and fell onto the table. The table shattered to the ground.
“You... whore.” Raj felt the bleeding wound under his neck.
Raj went to reach for the gun but the naked Riko stepped on his hand. She reached down and picked up the gun.