Francescan War Chronicles 1: Space Knight Denxeiter

by C. K. Pershing

  Captain Wright appeared on Feln’s screen. “Avenge this good ship and all those who’ve fallen before,” he said. With a salute, he continued, “Send these bastards—“

  The Ganley exploded in a giant ball of flame that threatened to engulf Denxeiter. Feln pulled back to a safe distance to escape the danger. The Ganley’s engine was of a higher power rating than most older destroyers, which allowed her to possess such firepower. But in an explosion, that engine’s power was a liability to any ship nearby. However, in a case of poetic justice, that same fireball did engulf the Terrible and Feln was relieved to see the heavy cruiser soon explode into her own spectacular demise.

  The Tiger Moth pulled up next to Denxeiter. Captain Apwell appeared on Feln’s screen. “Well, I hope the enemy didn’t capture anymore ships that powerful,” Apwell said.

  “I guess we were bound to run into something like her eventually,” Feln said. “There’s been so much confusion since we got pulled into this system. It all brings a new definition to the term ‘Fog of War’.”

  “Agreed,” Apwell said.

  Feln couldn’t believe they lost two ships so quickly. And while it was true that the Francescans had gotten the better of the fight by destroying more enemies, the fact was that the aliens were able to replace their losses much more easily. Feln also didn’t want to say out loud that if he had to be left with one destroyer at his side, he wished it wasn’t the oldest one.

  As if reading his mind Apwell said, “I know the Tiger Moth may not have the speed and firepower that the other two had, especially the Ganley. But she’s a good ship and has made it through plenty of battles. She has ten battle stars, and a crew ready to add more.”

  “I have no doubt about that,” Feln said. "And hey, compared to Denxeiter’s age of 127, the Tiger Moth is practically brand new.”

  Captain Apwell smiled and started to say something, but then said, “Ah, it looks like we have some more company.”

  Feln looked around to see a group of about twenty insects and some possessed Aldens heading toward them. “Well, I think it’s safe to say the enemy knows it’s just us here. They must have gotten a message off to their larger forces during the previous two fights.” Apwell nodded and broke communications as the Tiger Moth rotated sideways to aim her broadsides at the incoming enemies.

  While most modern ships in the Francescan star navy had either variable angle broadside guns, turrets, or a mixture of both, the Tiger Moth’s guns were mostly fixed. That meant that instead of being able to project its beams in large angles going up and down or forward and backward, the Tiger Moth’s beams were restricted to only being able to adjust a few degrees. Thus, the ship had to spend time making sure that her hull was always at the correct angle to deliver accurate beam fire.

  It just so happened that she was at the correct angle now and opened fire, the ship’s beams lancing out and blowing apart almost half of the enemies in the first salvo. Feln flew upward and started shooting down at the enemies pursuing him. In fact, he realized that they were all pursuing him.

  “If that’s what you guys want,” he said as he shot down at them with his pistol. Five insects exploded in a shower of body parts as his shots hit them square in the chest. A couple more shots beheaded two more enemies. The Tiger Moth was shooting after them with her secondary anti-aircraft weaponry, small laser turrets ringing the ship. Unlike the main guns, these smaller guns could change their angle of fire. While not powerful enough to damage larger ships, they were capable of destroying the current set of enemies.

  Feln flew down into the field of the Tiger Moth’s fire, shooting behind him as he went. Between the Tiger Moth’s shots and his own, the enemy force was soon gone.

  “I have a feeling we won’t be singing any songs together for a little while,” he said to Aaltskog. “It looks like the fight is on now.”

  “That’s okay. We’ll just wait and sing afterward,” she said.

  More beams shot past Denxeiter as still more insects appeared. “Okay, well, as I was saying…” Feln sighed before turning to face the new attackers. This time there were almost 40 attackers, mostly insects, but a couple of small ships too.

  The ships circled the Tiger Moth and started trading shots with her as the insects all chased after Feln.

  “Why do they keep coming for me?” Feln asked. He fired the Xeiter Beam and the gun sputtered its death ray into a squad of the aliens which promptly exploded.

  “It’s because of Ganxeiter,” Aaltskog said. “Ever since they possessed Katashka, I think they want another Space Knight. You’ve noticed how much better they’ve gotten at controlling our ships and coordinating their movements. I think they somehow evolved when they possessed Katashka. Maybe her blessing has improved them.”

  “Well that’s pretty damn terrifying,” Feln said as he dodged more incoming shots from the insects. He had to use the Den Aegis to shield himself a couple times before returning fire.

  “Well yeah,” Aaltskog said. “I think they figure possessing you will make them even better. Who knows, maybe they’re right.”

  “Well, I’m not gonna let them find out,” Feln said. He blasted away wildly with his forearm guns and when the aliens moved to evade, he quickly picked them off with his pistol. But there were still almost twenty of the things chasing him.

  He glanced down to see how the Tiger Moth was faring in her battle. One of the enemy ships was on fire and drifting away from the fight, either incapacitated or dead. The other was still trading shots with the Tiger Moth, but the destroyer’s shields were holding. The enemy ship, meanwhile, was coming away the worse for wear as the Tiger Moth’s beams hammered through the enemy’s shields and started boring holes into the hull. Soon, small internal explosions started erupting through the ship.

  It was at that moment that all of the enemies chasing Feln suddenly changed course and plummeted down toward the Tiger Moth.

  “Tiger Moth, you have incoming from above!” Feln yelled. “I repeat, you have incoming from above!” He dove after the insects, shooting them from behind and was rewarded with some more of them exploding. The Tiger Moth’s AA guns opened fire and also started taking their toll on the attackers.

  The enemy ship wasn’t dead yet, and continued firing at the Francescan destroyer. The insects swooped down to come in on the same heading as the shots from the ship. There were six of them left and they crashed into the side of Tiger Moth. The combined assault from the enemy ship’s fire and the suicide charge of the insects was finally enough to overwhelm the destroyer’s shields and after a flash pop, the shields died.

  The green enemy beams raked the Tiger Moth’s hull and bits of its armor started to melt and then explode. A couple of the insects had also survived their attack on the destroyer’s shields and were adding their beams to the fire from the enemy ship.

  Feln came screaming down on to the alien ship and thanks to its own shields already being dead from the Tiger Moth, punched through the hull and into the ships’ innards. While about twice as long as Denxeiter was tall, its actual height was only about half of Denxeiter’s. Feln shot his guns down into the hull around him and the interior explosions that were already starting to wrack the ship grew more intense.

  Time to bail out of this sinking ship, Feln thought and he blasted up and away from the enemy as it exploded. With Feln taking care of the ship, the Tiger Moth was free to use its guns on the remaining insects, firing its largest beams at the the things from point blank range and incinerating them.

  “Tiger Moth, do you read? What’s your status?” Feln asked.

  Captain Apwell appeared on-screen surrounded by smoke. “We took some hard hits but I think we’ll be okay. Some holes in the armor and eleven killed, but on the whole, it could be worse. The main problem is when the shields went down it caused a surge to our main engine, so right now we’re dead as far as being able to navigate. I’m told it’s going to take a couple hours to fix.”

  “Alright, well, you can’t stay out here wh
ile that’s happening,” Feln said. "I have two heavy attack drones. I’ll have them tow you back to the colony to be closer to help from other ships if you need it. It’ll be slow going since the drones are generally set to tow smaller ships, but at least it’s something. I’ll cover you.”

  “Thanks Captain. It’s much appreciated and I promise we’ll be back on station with you the second we have navigation back.”

  “Roger that,” Feln said as he activated the drones. They separated from their docking clamps on Denxeiter’s back and moved toward the Tiger Moth, putting their tractor beams on and starting the process of towing the destroyer back to the colony.

  Feln wasn’t surprised in the slightest when more enemies arrived. In fact he thought they would have arrived sooner. This group included two possessed Francescan light cruisers, an alien ship about the size of a heavy cruiser, and another 40 or so insects and Aldens.

  “Oh damn,” Feln said. That was all he got out before the entire force opened fire. Feln slammed Denxeiter sideways and managed to avoid most of the enemy’s shots, but was still hit by a few stray beams, mostly from the group of smaller enemies. Luckily his shields held, but was horrified when he realized what was going on.

  The large ships weren’t even shooting at him, but at the Tiger Moth, deciding to finish the scrappy destroyer off once and for all. The Tiger Moth rotated to face the enemy fleet to present the smallest target for the attackers to see, all the while still being carried along by the drones’ tractor beams. She fired her forward facing lasers and a spread of eight torpedoes. The beams were stopped by the shields of the enemies, all of them having stronger shielding ability than what the little destroyer could penetrate.

  On the other hand, the torpedoes did their damage with deadly efficiency— the ones that hit anyway. At such an extreme range through the interference and debris, the torpedoes’ tracking was useless and four of them exploded on impact with pieces of the enemy ships Feln and the Tiger Moth had just destroyed. Two more flew off harmlessly into space.

  It came down to a case of sheer luck that the remaining two torpedoes hit the large alien ship dead center and blew it apart. The explosion was so sudden and violent that it sent debris flying into the possessed Francescan ships. One ship suffered from a particularly devastating impact that crushed the hull inward and bent the entire ship into a concave shape before it blew up.

  It was to be the last victory in the valiant career of the I.F.S.N Tiger Moth. The remaining possessed Francescan light cruiser returned fire. There was nothing Feln could do because he was being pursued relentlessly by the group of insects and Aldens. He was so busy trying to keep himself from being shot, that he could only see out of the corner of his eye as the enemy beams punched through the unshielded Tiger Moth’s prow and melted it inward, caving in the entire hull as the beams emerged out the stern of the ship.

  A few escape pods had managed to get away, but they had launched too late. The Tiger Moth exploded and engulfed not only the pods, but Denxeiter’s drones, which were still dutifully pulling the ship along. Feln wondered how much more time the pods would have needed to avoid the blast. Probably only one or two seconds would have made all the difference…

  “Feln, what are you doing?” Aaltskog demanded. “Get out of la-la land and pay attention!”

  Feln snapped back to his immediate surroundings, just in time to avoid getting caught in a pincer maneuver between six insects. He flew straight down at the last moment and watched as the insects met above him, almost colliding. He fired into the crowd and they all exploded.

  “Sorry,” Feln said. “I was just thinking about how much extra time those escape pods would have needed to escape safely.”

  “Well it’s a worthy question and one that should be given its due consideration, but not now! You have more immediate concerns or you might be testing the capabilities of Denxeiter’s escape pod.”

  He ducked between a chunk of debris and grabbed hold of it like a shield. He flew toward a group of enemies and flung the debris toward them, picking them off as they tried to avoid the attack.

  “You’re right,” he said. “Sorry.”

  “I knew you didn't get enough sleep.”

  The cruiser had now joined the pursuit and Feln was finding it increasingly hard to dodge the combined fire of the insects and the ship.

  “If these things are trying to possess me, why are they acting like they want to kill me?”

  “Believe it or not, I think they’re just trying to incapacitate you,” Aaltskog said. “You should be honored. They’ve seen what you can do. They know they only have a chance if they come on strong because you’ll murder them otherwise.”

  Feln squeezed off a few more rounds and more insects died. “You mean like that?”

  Aaltskog laughed, “Well, yes and no. But you know what I mean. Lets just hope their belief in your skill is well-founded and nobody gets a ‘lucky’ hit and kills you.”

  “I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

  Just then a hail of beams appeared from Feln’s side and ripped through the enemies. Feln turned to see the small fighter planes of the colony home guard screaming in. They blasted more of the insects and wheeled around to perform strafing runs on the light cruiser. Feln took advantage of the enemies’ confusion to fire the Xeiter Beam at another group of enemies followed up by more pistol fire. Body parts and insect organs were strewn all over and Feln picked up the arm of one of the dead creatures and used it to bludgeon another one to death.

  “Bleah, that’s…creative,” Aaltskog said.

  “Well, it’s not like I can use my own sword all that much. I don’t want to activate Durandal unless absolutely necessary because we don’t know how long I’ll be out here. It uses up a lot of power to begin with, you know. And with Denxeiter in its current state…”

  “Yeah, I know. Just, eww.”

  Feln spun and put a shot through the head of an insect coming up behind him just as a home guard fighter shot another insect to Feln’s side. Feln had Denxeiter wave to the ship as it flew by and it dipped its wings in acknowledgement.

  “I’ll try to find a more appropriate weapon next time— a crossmember from a destroyed ship or something,” Feln said.

  “Yes, that would be best,” Aaltskog agreed.

  Feln’s attention was suddenly pulled below him as the possessed light cruiser destroyed a few of the home guard ships.

  “It’s the Selene, another ship from the Uhlinder’s fleet, and an Iltis-class,” Aaltskog said. “That’s not good because aside from having a good main armament, her specialty is actually killing smaller fighter craft— lots of AA guns.” Two more home guard ships blew up as if to prove her point.

  “Dammit, these guys have gotta get outta here then,” Feln said. “I appreciate the help, but they’re the last line of defense.” He put his comms through to Governor Zalk.

  Zalk appeared on screen with a concerned look on his face. “Captain, how’re you doing? My pilots couldn’t just sit idly by and watch the enemy take you down now that you’ve lost your destroyer escort.”

  “Sir, I appreciate it,” Feln said, “But you have to call them back.”

  One of the little ships darted past Denxeiter and shot down an Alden just as Feln shot two other insects.

  “But Captain, they want to help you and I see they’re scoring kills,” Zalk said.

  “I know, sir, and believe me I appreciate it. But they’re all that’s left in dedicated fighting equipment if I go down. You’ll need them to protect the colony if I’m killed and the support ships are lost. There’s an anti-AA cruiser out here and she’s chewing them up.”

  “Yes, I see eight have been destroyed.”

  “Governor, that’s already 1/5 of your home guard force destroyed. You’ll need everything you can muster if it comes down to it because we both know the support ships can’t provide much help.” Another home guard ship exploded. “Governor, please!”

  Zalk punched a console next to him and
finally growled, “Understood.” He turned to his ops officer, “Recall all fighters.” He turned back to Feln. “Captain, it’s times like these that I wish I would have never retired and became a governor. I wish I could be out there fighting beside you.”

  Feln fired a hail of pistol shots at a group of insects that were chasing some of the home guard fighters and smiled when the aliens all exploded, saving the small ships. “Me too, governor. It would be an honor, and we’d wipe these things out no problem.”

  “Yes we would. But you’re right. The fact is, I am a governor and I have to take care of my colonists. So I’ll be sure to keep the home guard here to protect the colony as you say. Your Companion is here too, and I promise I’ll defend her with my own bare hands if it comes to it.”

  “Thank you sir. And thanks for recalling your ships. I’m much relieved.”

  “We’ll toast your victory when this is over,” Zalk said. He saluted. “Good luck.” His screen went out.

  With the home guard ships leaving, the enemy returned its focus to Feln. The home guard had certainly helped thin out the insect and Alden horde. There were only five insects and four Aldens. And the Selene.

  “Feln…” Aaltskog said worriedly.

  “Yeah, I know. What to do, what to do…” He looped around dodging not just the fire from the smaller enemies, but the murderous fire from the Selene. He ducked behind what was left of the Ganley, feeling wrong to use the remains of an ally as a shield, but he hoped the spirits of the ship and her crew would forgive him when they saw what he had planned. “Alright, I’ve made up my mind: Durandal!”

  The giant sword materialized in Denxeiter’s hand with a crash just as the enemies came around the left side of the debris to attack. He swung the sword out with such ferocity that it cut through all five insects and one Alden in half in one slash. He quickly spun and jammed Durandal straight through the chest of another Alden coming from the right side, and with the robot still impaled on the sword, wheeled around in a wide slash that bashed it through the remaining two. All of the enemies exploded and Feln emerged from their flames to face the Selene. The light cruiser fired its main guns and Feln spun around to dodge the shots, all the while increasing speed toward his enemy.