Francescan War Chronicles 1: Space Knight Denxeiter

by C. K. Pershing

  “Yeah.” Feln clicked over to fleet communications hoping the boosters were still working. “This is Space Knight Koenig. Admiral Lenz’s order to destroy the traitor ships is valid. For any who are concerned with killing fellow Francescans, it’s my belief that those people are already dead.” He sent a transmission from Denxeiter’s camera so that all in the fleet could see what the enemy did to those they captured. “Killing them would be a mercy.” Feln concluded.

  At this, a heavy cruiser immediately opened fire on the group of former Francescans. It scored hits on the destroyers and was soon joined by other nearby ships. With all of the captured Aldens destroyed (Farewell, Hoff, Feln thought), the remaining loyal Aldens also joined in. It was if the fleet wanted to wipe this blasphemy against their friends and colleagues out of existence as quickly as possible.

  The destroyers exploded and the Bohcroo was on fire and listing. It still managed to get off a shot here and there, but it was already over for the ship and its “crew”. As Ganxeiter was moving to fly past him and get involved, Feln put out Denxeiter’s hand to stop her.

  “Let them have this,” he said to Katashka. “Those ships were regular Navy and I think its only right that we let regular Navy avenge their loss.” Katashka said nothing, but made a despondent sound. Ganxeiter stayed still.

  The Bohcroo’s back broke and the ship started to split into two. Feln watched in horror and anger as he saw more twisted Francescans dumped into space, tentacles writhing and eyestalks twitching. Ganxeiter turned around— Katashka couldn’t watch. Feln saw Valisia’s Alden swoop in and expertly place a shot into each possessed person with her anti-personnel gun. One final transmission came from the thing that used to be Lieutenant Commander Zhund Kendle: “Your ‘empire’ will be our food. The Masters demand it.” Seconds later, the two halves of the Bohcroo exploded in a massive fireball.

  “The Masters…” Feln stared at the area of debris that used to be the Francescan ships. “Are they the Ancient Evil?”

  Katashka’s screams cut in on his speaker.

  Feln whirled, “Katashka? What’s wrong?”

  “Feln, help! Help!” she got out before her voice turned into wild screaming.

  For some reason, her interior camera wasn’t coming on and he couldn’t see what was happening. And then he noticed something on the exterior camera. A long, thin tentacle was coming out of the mouth of the large insect’s head still tucked under Ganxeiter’s arm. It was snaked up into the underarm and into the side of Ganxeiter’s chest. This was some of the thinnest armor on a Hyper Battle Machine and the tentacle likely had no problem piercing this area to inject something inside.

  “Dammit, dammit!” Feln yelled. He ripped the insect’s head from under Ganxeiter’s arm, the tentacle whipping around angrily as if trying to grab onto Denxeiter too. He threw the head away and blasted it apart through its open neck with one of his pistols.

  He hoped that would end it, but Katashka continued screaming. Denxeiter grabbed Ganxeiter’s limp hand and pulled it toward the Uhlinder, Katashka screaming the entire time. He’d never heard such a horrible sound in all his life, like her throat was bleeding from the overwhelming stress from such intense work.

  “Uhlinder, prepare an emergency medical team with marine protection in Ganxeiter’s hangar! I believe Space Knight Nonn is being attacked inside her cockpit by the enemy.”

  Valisia’s Alden shot up beside him and Valisia’s image appeared on his screen, horrified, “What did you just say?” she demanded, in a voice high with terror. “You mean the same thing that happened to those people?”

  “Yes dammit! Now help me get her back to the ship. Maybe we can stop it.”

  Lenz appeared on screen. “We have the teams you need ready to go. The hangar is open. Don’t wait for the atmosphere. The teams are ready to blow the bolts to her cockpit and go right in.”

  “Roger that,” Feln said, thankful that Lenz really did seem competent in bad situations and Valisia’s trust in him wasn't misplaced.

  Katashka’s screams grew ever more ragged before suddenly taking on a choking, gargled sound.

  “Oh God. No…,” whimpered Valisia. “Katashka I love you. Please don’t leave me. Just hold on.”

  Katashka went silent and Ganxeiter’s eyes went dark. Feln hoped she only went silent because for whatever reason, Ganxeiter lost power and he was no longer receiving transmissions from it. But he knew deep down that wasn’t it. Just as Valisia knew. The choking and gargling was more than likely one of those things taking over her body and forcing those damned eyes up through from her throat.

  “Fuck!” Feln yelled and if he didn't have to drag Ganxeiter back to the Uhlinder, he would have stopped to punch his console repeatedly.

  Maybe its still treatable. Just stay cool and get her back. You’re almost there. It’s gonna be fine. She’s a Space Knight. Maybe normal humans can’t come back from this but Space Knights are tough. You’ll see.

  He got to the Uhlinder and hovered above the open hangar doors, ready to lower Ganxeiter inside. Denxeiter was still holding Ganxeiter’s hand.

  Goodbye Feln. He felt a wave of caring and warmth wash over him briefly and in an instant it was gone.

  “Katashka?” Feln called out. “Katashka, is that you…?” I’m so sorry, Katashka. He knew she wouldn’t answer.

  Ganxeiter’s eyes suddenly flashed on a searing red. Its hand, formerly limp, now grabbed Denxeiter’s left hand tightly and in a move so fast that Feln hardly knew what was happening, shot its other arm around to grasp Denxeiter’s upper left arm. In the same motion, Ganxeiter swung its body sideways and planted its feet against the side of Denxeiter’s chest and upper shoulder. The blades on the back of Ganxeiter’s calves shot down and sliced into Denxeiter’s body while twisting the arm before finally wrenching it, and part of Denxeiter’s chest cavity and shoulder from the rest of its body.

  Huge amounts of fluid spilled out of the massive open hole where one of Denxeiter’s limbs and part of its torso had been moments ago. Oil, coolant, and artificial muscle fluid were everywhere, as well as chunks of Denxeiter’s internal machinery.

  Denxeiter went into system shock and its power flickered off and on. Feln could hear and feel the main engine starting to sputter.

  “No, come on, keep going,” Feln coaxed. If the main engine shut down, it would not only need major repairs, but Aaltskog would have to reawaken Denxeiter from a hard stop. That was never good as it could do permanent damage to a Hyper Battle Machine’s major systems ranging from the engine to the main computer. Some Hyper Battle Machines simply never woke back up. “Don’t let this beat you. I’m here, take it easy. You’ll be fine.”

  Feln heard Valisia’s voice. “Katashka? Katashka no! What are you—” He could only barely make out what was happening since his screen was flashing off and on and the earlier loss of Denxeiter’s left eye had already lowered his visibility.

  The screen became clear long enough that he watched as Ganxeiter opened fire on Valisia’s Alden with the repeating beam rifle from almost point-blank range. Valisia, still in obvious shock over what was going on, didn’t move. Feln pushed Denxeiter forward with whatever energy was left, smashed the Alden out of the way, and just barely managed to take the shots meant for Valisia. The high-powered beams spat across Denxeiter’s body, shattering its shields and penetrating in various spots.

  Inside, the multiple impacts rang out and dislodged parts of the cockpit. Portions of Feln’s screen shattered and shards of glass cut him. One very large shard gashed his face, splitting the skin open and getting wedged inside. Hot pain seared his face and blood flew out, spilling down his uniform and covering him. He blinked to keep the blood from his eyes.

  With a final soft, deep sound, Denxeiter’s main engine ground to a stop. “Dammit. Dammit! I’m sorry,” Feln told the robot. He wanted to cry. “I really screwed this up. Maybe if I didn’t try to save Valisia…” But he stopped himself. That was ridiculous.

  While some might ar
gue that losing a Hyper Battle Machine was much worse than losing an Alden and its pilot, Feln knew otherwise. Emperor Gustav II was ready to sacrifice himself to stop the archmage Dotellus from taking over Wystra. It was a Space Knight’s duty to aspire to the same heights of selflessness. In these moments of terror, Feln’s mind raced for some comfort knowing the great emperor would approve the sacrifice.

  With Denxeiter’s main engine offline, the robot was effectively dead. No, Feln corrected himself, Just asleep. There was still some auxiliary power left in the batteries so he could send an automated mayday and watch what was going outside through a dimmed monitor. As he focused on what wad happening, he just as well wished he couldn’t see.

  Ganxeiter was slashing through Aldens with its rapier. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the smallest gash would suddenly cause the Alden to swell up from the inside and explode in a ball of pus. Feln shook his head in disbelief. He had no doubt Aaltskog was right. This had to have been the work of the Ancient Enemy. He also couldn’t believe how quickly it had all happened. Less that fifteen minutes had passed between Katashka’s first screams and now. Amazing. Feln didn’t know where Valisia was. He hoped she was safe and hadn’t suffered the same fate as the other Aldens.

  Ganxeiter was shooting up the Uhlinder and Feln was shocked at how calm he was as he watched the whole thing unfold. Ganxeiter used its rapier and fired an Ion Twister directly into the still-open hangar. Being a fleet carrier, the Uhlinder’s armor was already fairly thin. But taking a massive Hyper Battle Machine weapon blast directly to the internals was fatal. The hangar which had been opened to receive Ganxeiter with the hope of being able to help Katashka now proved to be the source of the Uhlinder’s death.

  The Ion Twister punched through the bottom of the ship finding no resistance from the lack of internal armor. All of the flammable liquids and fuels inside the hangar immediately exploded, setting off a chain reaction that made the carrier’s hull bulge and finally burst into a huge fireball. It happened so fast that Feln didn’t see any escape pods make it out. Almost 9,000 people were killed instantly.

  Just before the Uhlinder exploded, Ganxeiter cloaked and disappeared from the scene of the battle. Francescan ships fired all around the vicinity, hoping for a lucky shot to destroy the now enemy Ganxeiter, but no such luck. It was gone. Strange how Kendle could barely speak, but this Katashka-thing seems to know exactly how to use Ganxeiter, Feln thought.

  His attention suddenly became riveted on the flaming skeleton of the Uhlinder that emerged from the fireball. All of the ship’s skin had been burned away so all that was left was the main structure. Thanks to the immense amount of flammable liquids inside that had exploded, the skeleton ship was covered with it and still on fire. Feln watched helplessly as the remains of the ship fell toward the colony below.

  Some nearby ships, the Tannhauser included, opened fire on the wreckage, trying to destroy it before it hit the colony, but it was too late. The Uhlinder’s burning skeleton smashed into it, shattering the skin and rupturing half of the cylinder. People, cars, parts of buildings, and landscape poured into space. Massive solar panels that had been smashed in the collision started to arc blue lightning that caught and burned some of the flailing people to a crisp, while other lightning tendrils reached out and ripped into the hulls of nearby ships causing them to explode.

  Feln couldn’t take it anymore. He gravely saluted the deaths of all those people and shut the monitor off. He was done.

  Soon after, he was thrown forward in his seat as the shockwave from the massive explosions hit Denxeiter, flinging the robot toward the rocky planet below. He closed his eyes and waited.

  “Feln?” Aaltskog’s voice called out on his speaker, but it was already breaking up. “Feln where are you?”

  “I’m here, sweetheart. About to hit the planet.”

  He expected her to cry but her voice remained resilient. “Okay. I understand. We’re gonna find you and bring you and Big Brother back. I promise.”

  He laughed. “Didn’t you hear me? I’m about to crash into a planet.”

  “Yeah, I heard you and I don't care. You survive that fall okay? Once these explosions clear up, we’re coming for you. Sit tight.”

  “Okay. Not like I can do much else.”

  “Right. So just listen to me and wait for us.”

  “Okay.”

  “Feln, I love—” her transmission was lost to static.

  “I love you too,” he said.

  Seconds later, Denxeiter slammed into the planet and everything went black.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Francescan Star Calendar Year 582.8

  Location: System Unknown, Class K Planet Unknown

  Feln was engulfed in darkness. Where am I? he thought. He started to move and shooting pain up and down his back quickly stopped him. He was strapped into a seat. Denxeiter’s seat. I crashed down on that rock planet. How long was I out? He suddenly felt cold and noticed a light layer of frost on everything. With the main engine shut down and most reserve power dead, the life support was also out. Whatever air was left in the cockpit was all he had left before having to put on a spacesuit. But even that would only give him a few more hours.

  With what seemed like a lot of effort to do something so minor, he reached down and hit the release for the five point harness that kept him strapped to his seat. As if the back pain wasn’t bad enough, he clenched his teeth when he felt his chest erupt in pain. Must’ve also broken some ribs.

  Feln’s body would repair his wounds slowly but surely thanks to the fleet of nanobots that lived inside him. He was all but certain that without his enhanced Space Knight resiliency, the impact of his crash would have killed him instantly. As the pain continued, he thought that might not have been such a bad thing.

  He reached up to brush the hair away that was stuck to his face and was greeted with still more pain when he accidentally touched the shard of glass wedged into his skin. From my main screen shattering when…Katashka turned. His heart sunk thinking about what happened to the fiery Space Knight when her body was taken over by an alien intelligence. She—no, it— then went on to deal a devastating amount of damage to the combined fleet he was in. One fleet carrier, multiple smaller ships, and one half of a space colony. At least 50,000 people now dead, and among them, for all intents and purposes, was Katashka Nonn.

  “I’m still alive, though,” he said aloud. “And I won’t die until I avenge Katashka and all those other people.”

  The pain in his body told him that was easier said than done, but he tried his best to ignore it and gingerly opened a compartment in the side of his pilot seat. A small emergency flashlight was in there and he took it out. His eyes seared when he turned the flashlight on and the cockpit was suddenly illuminated by a burning glare.

  Normally, Denxeiter’s cockpit would have had its own gravity so that no matter what the orientation of Denxeiter’s body, the gravity would make him feel like he was sitting upright. After the failure of Denxeiter’s main engine and the reserve power lost while he was unconscious, there was no such thing now— only the gravity of the rock planet he was stranded on. It could have been worse. Denxeiter could have crashed face down, which would have had Feln dangling from his pilot seat. But the robot must have crashed down back first, because he was currently pressed back in his seat as if laying down. Luckily, this planet’s gravity was about half of what he was used to or his pains would be a lot worse.

  He reached down under his seat and pulled the lever there, hoping for the best. He was in luck. There was still enough power in the dedicated batteries that held the cockpit locks in place. Denxeiter’s cockpit and small attached cabin were both housed inside of an armored sphere. That sphere sat inside yet another sphere and when released from its locks, was then free to allow gravity to rotate it into an upright position to match the gravity of the environment he was in.

  As the sphere slowly rotated into the proper orientation, Feln could feel weight returning to his fee
t. This of course, caused his pains to change— some were a little better while others were worse.

  He gently pulled himself out of his seat and clenched his teeth so hard from the pain, he was scared he might break them. But much like the rest of his body, they held together despite the circumstances.

  Now on his feet, he shone the flashlight ahead and slowly limped to the door of the small crew cabin. Since the power was out, he had to use the manual lever and pull the door open himself. After a lot of grunting and sweating, there was a large enough opening for him to get through.

  Idiot, you have pain killers in a seat compartment, he suddenly remembered. Now he was torn between going back to the seat to get them, or to just soldier on and get the pain meds in the cabin. After entirely too much time debating the pros and cons of each option, he decided to press on into the cabin.

  He carefully made his way in and fumbled in the small nightstand built into the side of the bed. His flashlight finally picked out what he needed and he pulled out a pain med and administered it to himself. Instant relief washed over him in such a rush that he almost wanted to take another just to experience the same feeling again.

  Now that the pain was severely diminished, he made his way into the small head built into the cabin and looked at himself in the mirror. He pursed his lips in annoyance when his reflection showed his face, his hair, and the front of his uniform coated in blood.

  He opened the small cabinet behind the mirror and got out some cleaning wipes. He cleaned his face as best he could, but realized that layers of dry, caked blood weren’t going to be affected much by what he was doing.

  More than anything, he had to do something about that chunk of glass embedded in his face. Under the head’s sink, there was a small cabinet and he reached inside to find the first aid kit. He took out the bandages and needle and thread and sat them on the sink. He looked at himself in the mirror and took a deep breath. Here goes…