“No ma’am, I haven’t. Indeed, it’s been just the opposite in more ways than one,” she said. Achren’s posture relaxed slightly as Katashka continued, “As I told the Captain, I’d have done the same thing in his shoes—and yours—and bear no ill will.” She saluted, “Space Knight Katashka Nonn is pleased to meet you and begs your forgiveness for behavior unbecoming an officer in His Imperial Majesty’s Navy.”
Feln could see Achren’s mind calculating if Katashka was being honest or making fun. Apparently she decided on the former and returned Katashka’s salute. “The pleasure is mine and you are forgiven.” She then broke into her previous large smile. “I’m so happy that I got to meet not one, but two Space Knights on my first command mission! My sisters will be so jealous!”
“Ah, it’s not that great,” Feln said.
“Heh, speak for yourself!” Katashka said. “The false modesty on this guy!” She laughed and Achren giggled.
Feln rolled his eyes, “Alright, we’ll be going now. It was nice talking with you Commander.”
Achren seemed almost like she wanted to pout and Feln was glad she didn’t. It was already tough enough keeping his mind from running away with fantasies about her without her doing something that on a Nymph would seem suggestive. “You too Captain, I hope we meet again. Both of you.” Her eyes suddenly seemed to flash and for an instant Feln wanted to do nothing more than spend all of eternity in a sexual bliss with the enchanted creature on his screen.
“Y-you too,” Katashka shuddered before Achren broke connection.
Feln had Denxeiter take Ganxeiter’s hand and fly away.
“Whoah, d-did you feel that?” Katashka asked after a couple of moments.
“The near-orgasm and sudden longing to be her sex slave for the rest of my life? Yeah.”
“Glad it wasn’t just me! That was…” She shook her head. “That was really hot. I’m all messed up. That Jammer she’s wearing needs to be calibrated or something because it damn sure isn’t doing its job.”
“Huh…” was all Feln could get out after Katashka’s admission. Finally he said, “I was thinking about the Jammer actually. I think it works. Otherwise her ship would probably be one full-on orgy with her at the center. It doesn’t work for us because of our Blessing’s heightened senses or something. It’s maybe even worse for you because of your empathy—you seem more affected…unless you were joking about that.”
Katashka’s eyes widened, “Oh that was no joke. I’m on the edge of bliss. And actually kind of scared. She’d be real trouble if she could get the Jammer off.” She took a couple deep breaths before saying, “But to your point about why her glamor still seems to affect us, yeah, maybe you’re right. Whatever it is, wow, we should take her up on her offer. Those Sylvans are supposed to be pretty flexible like saplings that’ll bend but won’t break, which I guess makes sense considering their origins.”
“I was pretty much thinking the same thing when I met her,” Feln agreed. “Maybe our bodies know she’s safe for us to be with and we won’t hurt her, so the Jammer gets overridden…”
Katashka looked back toward the Artemis as it disappeared into the haze. She had an expression of longing that worried him. “Hey,” he began, “so is everything okay? You and your sister…”
She seemed to snap out of it. “Oh. Yeah, it’s fine. Sorry you saw that and sorry for storming out like I did. I was just getting back on the shuttle to go back to the Uhlinder when the alert sounded. I got off the shuttle and went straight to the hangar and launched.”
“You were already at the shuttle, huh? I hope you were planning to come back sometime…”
“Oh no worries, naughty boy. We aren’t close to being finished. I just needed to be alone to sort things out and then this happened.” Ganxeiter’s free hand pointed to the alien fleet. “By the way, are we making our Machines date too?” She indicated Denxeiter holding Ganxeiter’s other hand.
“Ah, sorry,” Feln said, releasing Ganxeiter’s hand.
“No, it’s fine. They make a cute couple…like us. They’re Mr. and Mrs. Xeiter!” She laughed.
“I’m not sure if either of these couples could be considered ‘cute’.”
“You’re right. We’re too hardcore for that.” She licked her lips before laughing some more.
“Yeah right. So…on an unrelated note, have you used your disappearing act to get a closer look at the enemy? And speaking of which, what is that disappearing thing exactly?”
“No idea. Valisia could tell you better then me. I just know that Ganxeiter’s Blessing is what makes it happen. Unlike normal cloaking where the shields and weapons don’t work during the actual cloak and take almost a minute to recharge after, Ganxeiter doesn’t have any of those drawbacks.” Katashka said. “But again, I don’t know how. Nobody really does.”
“We usually don’t use cloaking on ships because Imperial Edict states it as being an act of cowardice.”
Katashka laughed. “Yeah, I love that one. I said the same thing and was told it was acceptable for Ganxeiter because if it came as a Blessing, it was obviously meant to be. Case in point: Ganxeiter doesn’t suffer any of the drawbacks of cloaking, while the ships that aren’t Blessed get hit with the ‘cowards’ punishment’ of no shields and the slow recharge.”
“That actually does make sense in a way,” Feln said. “I can see it.”
“Yeah, I guess I can too,” Katashka agreed. “So anyway, good idea, let me see if I can get a closer look at these guys…”
Before Feln could reply, Katashka’s window flicked off and Ganxeiter shimmered out of sight and disappeared. For a couple seconds, he could almost keep track of her as he watched an invisible force moving gas and debris out of the way on course toward the alien fleet, but he quickly lost sight. After holding position for a few minutes and no sign of Ganxeiter, he started absently watching the Francescan ships moving around in their slow patrol maneuvers. Some of the corvette captains seemed to be growing restless because a few of the small ships were doing increasingly risky maneuvers, almost playing chicken and seeing how close they could fly at each other.
His gaze instantly shot back to the enemy fleet when he saw a mass of green beams erupt amongst the ships. They crisscrossed as they tried to hit something and in some cases actually hit each other. Some of their smaller ships were caught in the crossfire. I guess she pissed somebody off over there, Feln thought.
Seconds later, Ganxeiter appeared next to him. “What happened?” he asked.
“I screwed up,” she spat. “It started off well enough. I got in close and got some good images with the camera for the science teams to look at. While I was zooming in on the bridge section of one ship, I was concentrating so hard that I could start to feel them.
“They don’t really have individual thoughts, it’s some kind of hive mind. When I tried to zero in on the feeling, I suddenly knew that they knew I was there. And that they were in the middle of going through with some kind of plan. They opened up right away and almost got me with the first shot. I think they fired in surprise. If they would have been able to stay calm for a few more seconds and pinpoint my location, I’d be dead now.”
“Well, it looks like they’ve realized that you’re not there anymore,” Feln said. “They’ve stopped firing.” The alien ships had indeed grown silent. That silence was broken a few seconds later when they all opened fire again, but this time they were shooting at the Francescan fleet. Unlike before, the fleet was on full alert so all shields were raised and weapons ready to fire.
The green alien beams were mostly stopped by the superior shielding of the Francescan ships that weathered the first barrage and then returned fire. The red Francescan beams lanced outward at the aliens and punched massive holes in their hulls causing them to explode. The enemy fleet turned toward the Francescans and advanced to get in a closer range where their weaker guns could do more damage. The Francescan ships kept firing, wiping out entire swaths of alien ships, but more kept coming.
“No, definitely not,” Katashka answered.
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, just before they realized I was there, I go the distinct impression they were about to start something. A plan. And they’re…determined…to wipe us out.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I just know that when they detected me there was a brief flash of anger at being discovered. Like maybe it was going to ruin what they were planning.”
“Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that you messed up their train of thought. If anything else, them shooting amongst themselves over there definitely got our side on its toes after all the waiting.”
“I guess…yeah, maybe you’re right.” She laughed. “Okay, well, then shall we?”
“We shall,” he agreed and they both flew into the oncoming enemy fleet.
Chapter Ten
Feln had to be careful to dodge not only the beams from the enemy, but the beams from the Francescan ships as well. He powered ahead through the alien fleet, Katashka at his side until he penetrated far enough into the interior of the fleet where battle hadn’t been joined yet. The alien ships seemed so preoccupied with getting to the front, that there was a delay before they started to engage the two super robots.
Feln unholstered Denxeiter’s pistols and Katashka unslung Ganxeiter’s repeating beam rifle from Ganxeiter’s back. They started firing into the enemy ships around them while the aliens tried to maneuver into position to fight back. The Space Knights didn’t give the enemy much chance to pin them down in any one place as they darted around and between ships, firing all the way.
As debris from destroyed ships started to get thicker in the area, they used it to good advantage, ducking in and out of cover to fire. Soon, the alien ships pulled away on a heading to engage the Francescan ships, seeming to give up on getting bogged down in battle with the Hyper Battle Machines. Feln was amazed to see the aliens willfully turn their back and allow him to get in crucial shots from the rear.
“There’s so many of them,” Katashka said. “Is that why they don’t care about just passing us by?”
“You got me,” answered Feln. “I can’t believe they’re just gonna leave us here to take pot shots at them. They must really want something in our fleet…”
Katashka pointed. “Or maybe they just decided it’s easier to fight soldiers with other soldiers than with ships.” A swarm of insects was emerging from the gas cloud where she pointed and was heading straight for them. The insects fanned out into a wide circle before swooping back in and making a concentrated spear point formation with their bodies that came at Feln and Katashka at an incredibly high speed, firing all the way.
“Ugh,” was all Feln could get out as he and Katashka poured fire into the onrushing horde of aliens. Once again, Katashka was synching up with him perfectly, her shots expertly killing any insects that through sheer weight of numbers had made it past Feln’s shots. The two of them also managed to dodge any incoming beams for the most part, but some hits were scoring on their armor. Since they had to keep shooting, they couldn’t afford to use the Den Aegis shielding in their capes for fear of the enemy getting into physical attack range while the capes were deployed. Adding to their shooting, they also fired their Xeiter Beams, which scythed through around ten insects with each shot, but the weight of numbers was beginning to tell.
“We can’t keep doing this,” Feln grunted. “They’re getting closer by the second.”
“Right. How many of these damn things are there?” Katashka asked.
“They’re bugs. Probably a lot.”
“I’ve got an idea. Do you think you can hold them here for a few seconds on your own?”
“I…think so.”
“Okay, I’ll be right back.” With that, Ganxeiter stopped firing and suddenly shimmered away into invisibility.
Feln didn’t have time to consider what Katashka was going to do because he now had to deal with the full weight of enemies on his own. He kept up his pistol fire along with the Xeiter Beam. The enemy was now getting close enough that body parts, mucous, and blood were starting to bounce off his navigation deflector at such a high rate, the shield’s power was showing close to failure. More shots were penetrating Denxeiter’s armor in various spots now that they were close enough to start getting through the beam shields.
Suddenly Feln noticed a change in the alien wave coming at him. It was swelling with explosions from behind that made the formation change from a sharpened spear into a bloated cylindrical shape before the whole thing exploded into a mass of guts and insect shell caught between Feln’s shooting and Katashka’s attack. As Ganxeiter emerged from the mess Feln noticed its rapier in hand.
Reestablishing contact, Katashka said, “Well, that seemed to do it. I just uncloaked behind them and started to blast them with the Ion Twister. The way they kept coming, I had a feeling they wouldn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. I would have been here sooner, but they were in a pretty long line. It was kind of crazy how the farther back I went, it seemed like they were just waiting in line for their turn to die.”
“Yeah, it’s actually pretty scary the numbers they seem to have no problem throwing in as cannon fodder. I think our only saving grace is that they aren’t as tough as we are overall and more importantly, they don’t seem to have a firm grasp on good tactics. If they did, we’d be in big trouble.”
“Well, their current ‘strategy’ almost worked.”
“Yeah, true. We should probably—”
A group of large craft suddenly burst out of the debris heading straight for them. Feln holstered his guns and activated Durandal. He met the lead ship head on and spun Denxeiter head over feet to bring the huge sword down onto the nose of the craft. The ship’s bow sliced off and exploded and Feln fired the Xeiter Beam into the gaping hole opened in the ship’s hull. Explosions fired off down the length of the ship from the inside and it burst open. Feln looked over to see Katashka doing the same thing with her sword and Xeiter Beam to another ship, synching with him again.
A third ship came barreling toward them and they both used their respective special sword attacks at the same time: Feln with the Wave Slash and Katashka with the Ion Twister. The ship disintegrated under the combined onslaught and two more ships in the distance behind it were also destroyed from the blast.
“Lets get back to our fleet and make sure they’re alright.” Feln said.
“Roger that.”
As they flew along back toward their fleet, they continued to attack the alien ships they passed, hacking off engines and cutting into hulls. They left a massive swath of destruction behind them that was only exceeded by the destruction that was being dealt out by their fleet ahead. The large red beams from the Francescan ships lanced through space all around them and once again they had to be careful not get shot by their own forces.
Although Space Knights held a special place in Francescan military organization, they were nonetheless expected to work in conjunction with the overall fleet strategy. That meant they were more than welcome to fly out in front of the Francescan line of battle if they so chose, but couldn’t expect a fleet of ships to stop firing just because two Space Knights decided to go directly into the path of friendly fire.
Some of the enemy ships tried to get in a couple of shots at them as they passed, but were easily avoided. Feln didn’t even bother to shoot back because those enemy ships more often than not soon found themselves ripped apart by Francescan fleet fire. The space between the bulk of the two fleets was full of what was left of destroyed alien ships and other assorted wreckage. Feln couldn’t help but notice the remnants of Francescan ships among the debris as well. As they returned to the Francescan battle line, he saw definite gaps where there had been ships before the battle.
As if reading his mind, Katashka consoled, “At leas
t it looks like our team got a lot more kills than theirs.”
“Yeah…,” he agreed absently while watching the cruisers continue to pound the attackers into dust. Corvettes were screaming all around, chasing down smaller enemy craft and occasionally sinking larger ships with torpedoes. He looked for the Artemis and flew in the direction of the missile ship before the attack.
“Are we looking for our girl?” Katashka asked.
“Yeah,” he said again.
“Good, I’m worried for her too.”
Feln soon spotted the little ship surrounded by debris and flanked by two light cruisers, all were firing together. The Artemis had obviously fired all of its missiles and would need a reload because it was back to shooting its light complement of beam weaponry. Although happy to see the ship, that happiness turned to concern when he saw various damage to the ship’s skin and a couple of spots where the hull had been breached.
“Commander Achren?” Feln hailed the ship. After a delay, Achren’s image appeared in his screen. She had a bandage wrapped around her head, her silver hair was matted with blood and the rings they were tied in were ragged.
“Are you okay? Do you need help?” Katashka asked, concern in her voice.
Achren gave a shaky salute and a tired smile, “I’m fine. We were a little too close to a heavy cruiser when it blew up. That debris surrounding us is what’s left. Thankfully, our friends came in to help us.” She indicated the two light cruisers. “Even though we have hull breaches, we somehow haven’t had any casualties.”
“Do you need anything?” Feln asked.
“A missile reload would be nice,” Achren said. “Of course, no rearming supply ship’s going to come out here in the middle of all this.”
That was only natural— a ship specifically built to carry ammunition and for weapons resupply was essentially a giant powder keg. If one of those blew up in the middle of a battle line, it would take quite a few ships with it. As it was, the rearming ships were always safely tucked away from any front line combat.
Francescan War Chronicles 1: Space Knight Denxeiter Page 11