Francescan War Chronicles 1: Space Knight Denxeiter

by C. K. Pershing

  “Schwarzer Tod!” Kriemhilde’s voice suddenly shouted as a colossal black beam erupted from the vortex and plowed into the enemy ship. The ship’s shields immediately burst under the assault and the black beam shot straight through its hull and disappeared into space.

  Ringing the hole made from the beam was a mass of crackling black energy. Feln watched in amazement as the black energy suddenly shot out to engulf the ship and then pull back in on itself. Any insects near the ship were also sucked in and Feln realized he had to pull back to keep Denxeiter from getting caught in the same effect.

  “It’s like a black hole in beam form,” Aaltskog said just as the ship and anything caught in the black energy collapsed in on itself with a deafening bang. The immediate vicinity of space was now empty where recently there had been two large alien super ships and a host of giant insects.

  Kriemhilde appeared on Feln’s screen. Her blonde hair fell down in front of her shoulders in two long braids framing a face that was both youthfully cute and somehow vicious at the same time. Her skin was pale white and thick black eyeliner and dark gray eye shadow ringed her eyes giving her a very gothic appearance. She wore a Space Knight tunic similar to Feln’s, but in the white of a Royal instead of the dark blue that Feln wore. She wore an officer’s hat like Feln’s, but hers was white. In fact, Feln realized the only truly discernible color anywhere on her was her deep blue eyes and her blood red lips.

  Her tongue licked those lips and she smiled. “I bet those monster bastards weren’t expecting anything like that.” Feln remembered she had just turned eighteen and despite the enormity of what she’d just done, there was something about her that gave her the aspect of just a normal teen who had finally experienced true freedom for the first time in her life.

  “Well, I know I certainly wasn’t expecting it,” Feln said.

  “Heh, I like you. Let’s be friends,” Kriemhilde said. She slightly bit her lip in a pensive expression awaiting Feln’s response.

  Feln felt a chill of terror run down his spine as he answered, “Of course I’m your friend. I damn sure don’t want to be your enemy.” He immediately wanted to punch himself in the skull for that last part. Why did you say that, you idiot?

  Kriemhilde’s eyes darkened and her smile grew wider as he said huskily, “Oh, you’d better believe that. Otherwise, sssssst.” As she made the sound, she made a slicing motion across her throat. Feln stared at her, unblinking. Absently, his hands tightened on Denxeiter’s controls preparing for a fight. But Kriemhilde’s smile suddenly grew warm and her eyes softened. “No worries though, because we’re friends. I’m Kriemhilde Francesca II.”

  Feln almost laughed that Kriemhilde felt the need to introduce her full name considering her standing as fifth in the line of succession to the throne of the Empire. Instead he smiled and said, “Very pleased to meet you. I’m Feln Koenig.”

  “Well, I’m glad to know you, Feln. Now come on, there’s more bugs to kill.” Her image disappeared from his screen and Es Wird Finster turned to fly off toward more insects.

  “Good Lord, Feln, are you trying to get us killed with that line about not wanting to be her enemy?” Aaltskog demanded. “The last thing you want to do is have that girl associate us and the word ‘enemy’ at the same time, no matter how many other words are in between.”

  “Yeah, I know,” he said. “But hey, on the bright side, she’s not like those stuck-up kids in the other Machines. She had private tutoring in a secret star system, so she didn’t have the same instructors as them. At least she’s talking to us.”

  “I think I’d rather deal with the cold shoulder than to cozy-up up with an insane killer.”

  “Nah, we’ll be alright. You heard her. We’re friends.” He tried to laugh it off to put Aaltskog’s mind at ease, but then he wondered who would calm his own mind.

  “Funny how Denxeiter has a unit insignia showing a skull when it should really be Es Wird Finster with that design since it’s pretty much just a big skeleton,” Feln remarked.

  Before Aaltskog could answer, another giant enemy ship exploded from the combined firepower of the Eendracht and the Francescan rearguard. Almost at the same time, a different enemy super ship from the group engaging the main Francescan battle line also blew up. The Aldens and fighters from the Carthage were concentrating their fire on herding more insects into the killing beams of the Eendracht and the gunships.

  There was a final group of around twenty insects that Kriemhilde seemed happy to wade into. The swords flew around her like very large angry bees and sliced apart anything that got near her as she plunged her scythe into the chest of an insect and twisted it while pulling up. The insect’s organs spilled out into space and it screamed, the possession tentacle shooting out from its mouth. Es Wird Finster’s fist slammed into the alien’s face, smashing the tentacle into paste against one of the creature’s eyes. The lenses of the eye shattered and Es Wird Finster pulled out the insect’s brain through the open socket before closing its fist and squashing the brain into gray goo.

  “This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time,” Kriemhilde’s voice came over the speakers with a chuckle. Another insect attacking from above was suddenly skewered on the long blades that Es Wird Finster had in place of feet. “Tra la la,” Kriemhilde sang absently as she spun her Hyper Battle Machine around, the blades carving a massive hole out of the insect’s body.

  Feln kept shooting at any insects that weren’t in the killing path of Es Wird Finster or its swords. He envied the other Space Knights and their fully armed, fully operational Hyper Battle Machines and all the damage they could do. Reminding himself that he’d been the only Space Knight present for most of this war and that he was miraculously still alive wasn’t much of a consolation.

  “Hey Feln, look at this,” Kriemhilde said. He turned to see Es Wird Finster holding the disembodied head of one of the large insects. The tentacle was whipping around from the mouth. Es Wird Finster grabbed the lower jaw of the head and slammed it shut, chopping off the tentacle. “Pretty funny in a poetic sort of way, wouldn't you say?” she said, zapping the still-wriggling tentacle with Es Wird Finster’s eye beams.

  “Uh, yeah,” Feln said. “He was pretty clumsy biting his tongue like that…”

  “Yes, you understand.” She chuckled some more, just as a flash of bright light behind Es Wird Finster signaled the explosion of another large alien ship. Silhouetted by the light and standing in the middle of so many hacked up insects, Es Wird Finster looked truly terrifying.

  Feln tried to push his fear aside and instead looked around waiting for more enemy ships to arrive as had been happening since this battle started. But none seemed to be appearing. Were the enemy tired of pouring more ships and insects into this battle? If so…

  “M’lady,” Feln said to Kriemhilde as she went back to work finishing off another insect.

  Her image immediately appeared on screen. She was grinning from ear to ear. “Isn’t this just too much? Uncle Sieg didn’t want me to come, but I finally convinced him. He sent that ship to babysit me but I obviously don’t need them.” As she was talking, an insect came up behind Es Wird Finster, but before Feln could warn her, Kriemhilde turned her head slightly and her eyes flicked to the side to glance in the insect’s direction. The swords sliced the alien apart with breathtaking speed as her eyes focused back on Feln, who had the impression that the swords obeyed Kriemhilde like pets. “I’m sorry, you were saying?”

  “Well, I think the enemy is about to give up this fight, thanks in no small part to your prowess on the battlefield.”

  “That’s very sweet of you to say. I’m really happy you’re here,” she said earnestly. Feln had to fight the impulse to ask why since he’d been hardly more than a spectator to her killing spree.

  “Well, I’m happy to be here. But see, I think the enemy leadership knows they’re beaten and is going to bug out at any minute.”

  “‘Bug out’,” Kriemhilde said. “No pun intended, right?”
>
  “Er, right. But see, your uncle wants us to try to capture one of their queens in their flagship.” He highlighted the ship on their shared tactical display. “So I think we should—“

  “They won’t get away,” Kriemhilde said and tore off toward the group of ships in front of the main battle line.

  “Damn, that girl is gonna wear Big Brother out,” Aaltskog said as Feln throttled up to full speed to keep up.

  “Yeah. Y’know I had a feeling that battleship was sent here to watch over her and she confirmed it. And geez, calling the Emperor ‘Uncle Sieg’.” Feln laughed. “Even his own son refers to him by his title, but not this girl.” He smiled and shook his head. “She actually kind of reminds me of you.”

  “What?”

  “Oh don't act so surprised. From the stories I’d heard and some of the footage I’d seen, I thought she was going completely insane. But I don’t think she is. She’s just got a lot of heavy stuff going on and she's trying to figure out how to process it. Sound like anybody we know?”

  Aaltskog was quiet. “Well, maybe. But for God’s sake, she just used one of those big bugs in some kind of crazy puppet show.”

  “Call me crazy, but I think she’s just really lonely. Nobody else in the Imperial Household is Blessed. But she never attended the Academy so she never got to know other Space Knights. She was tutored privately and has probably never met anyone else like herself. This is just a lot of letting off of steam.

  “And be honest, it’s kind of cathartic seeing her tear these monsters apart so mercilessly knowing what they’ve done not just to our people, but to all the others they’ve come across. Her laughter might be, well…scary… but then I think of the sound of Katashka getting possessed. And suddenly Kriemhilde’s laughter is kind of therapeutic. These things must be getting pretty scared of her.”

  “Well, when you put it like that, maybe I agree,” Aaltskog said. “What happened to Katashka… If this girl can make the enemy feel just as scared and helpless as we did, there’s something to be said for that.”

  “I know that makes us horrible people though, and someday, I’m probably gonna hate myself for it,” Feln said. “But right now, I’m glad these bastards aren’t just dying, but dying terrified.”

  “Yeah…”

  Changing the subject after Aaltskog’s half-hearted agreement, Feln said, “I wonder what her Companion is like?”

  “Hard to say. I don’t think it’s ever been made public who it is or what he or she is like. Which is actually kind of weird when you think about it.”

  “Well, yeah, it is. But even with that in mind, there’s just something about her that I feel like I want to help. I think I really do want to be her friend and let her know there are people who are willing to try to understand her.”

  After a few more moments of silence, Aaltskog finally said. “I’m probably gonna regret this, but I think I agree with you. Alright, let’s try to be there for her if she ever needs someone. I’m on board.”

  “Good. I wouldn’t do it if you were against it.”

  “No, you’re right. I can identify with her, even if I’m not so…killy.”

  “Fair enough.” Feln had barely finished his sentence when Es Wird Finster blasted directly into the line of fire of both fleets, darting back and forth and dodging the storm of laser beams flying around. Feln did the same, but had to use the Den Aegis to deflect some of the smaller beam fire being poured out by the anti-fighter weapons mounted on some of the ships.

  As he was slammed back and forth in his seat while trying to keep up and dodge at the same time, Feln said through gritted teeth, “I’m glad the Prince believes in our dodging abilities enough to not stop firing.” Aaltskog could only laugh nervously.

  “Feln,” Kriemhilde called.

  “Yes, right behind you,” he answered.

  “Good, here’s the plan. I’ll destroy their jump drive with my ‘Black Hole Beam of Doom’— that’s trademarked by the way— and you’ll get in there and chop out the section of their ship where the queens are before the ‘Black Energy of Doom’— also trademarked— swallows the ship up. Got it? Great. Let’s go.” Without waiting for a response, she screamed high over the enemy ships and started diving down toward the flagship.

  As Feln surmised, various ships in the enemy fleet began to jump out. If they weren’t ready to jump before at losing so many ships in the battle, this direct assault on their flagship had certainly seemed to do the trick. This was going to be really close.

  Kriemhilde put Es Wird Finster into its spiraling move again, building up the same black energy vortex as before. She did it for longer this time, and the energy got bigger and bigger. Feln had to move back because he could feel Denxeiter getting pulled in. Indeed, any beam fire aimed at Es Wird Finster was getting sucked into the vortex with no damage to the Hyper Battle Machine at the center.

  “Schwaaaaaaarzeeeeeeerrrrr Tooooood!” Kriemhilde’s voice rose to a primal scream as she stopped just short of slamming into the enemy ship. The vortex around Es Wird Finster had grown to almost half a mile across and the pure black beam that blasted out of it was almost as big. The space around the alien ship began to shimmer as the beam crashed against its shields. Space began to distort and Feln thought the queens were going to escape. But the beam suddenly burst through the shields and crashed through the ship’s hull. It blew out the other side and destroyed any alien ships that had been below the flagship.

  The space distortion stopped and the shimmering disappeared. Kriemhilde had done it and the ship wasn’t going to escape. However, the bigger blast of energy seemed to make the residual effects spread across the ship even faster and Feln hurried to do his part.

  His sensors showed the earlier transmission from the queens as coming from near the center front of the ship. Another sensor sweep showed five lifeforms vaguely similar, but different enough from the rest of the life teeming throughout the ship that it had to be them. At this point any beam fire the aliens had been aiming at the Francescan fleet was redirected toward Denxeiter wherever possible. Multiple shots scored on Denxeiter’s body, destroying the remaining drones, and a large beam from one of the ships suddenly vaporized its left leg. Under such an assault, the new Den Aegis was in worse tatters than the one it replaced.

  “Dammit, almost there,” Feln said as he fought to bring Denxeiter under control from the sudden shift in balance from the destruction of a limb. He could hear Aaltskog’s fingers flying across her console behind him to bring Denxeiter’s handling back into balance. As he came up on the spot where the queens were shown to be, he unsheathed Ganxeiter’s sword.

  “Katashka, this is for you!” he called as he stabbed the sword deep into the hull of the ship and started to carve out a large circle around the life forms. He hoped the alien ship had some kind of damage seals around its bridge that would activate from the sudden loss of life support he was causing. To be safe he cut the circle in a ten yard radius around the queens to give a better chance for such systems to operate.

  Because he was no longer a moving target, the enemy beam fire started to hit Denxeiter with more frequency. A beam hit the side of Denxeiter’s head and tore away half of its helmet. Another shot away part of its right hip and Feln could feel the leg beneath starting to separate. He was only about halfway finished cutting out the section of ship when Aaltskog said, “I think we need Resonance.”

  “Okay, let’s try it!” Feln yelled. “Just be careful.” He put all of his will into the fight, trying to bring the Resonance on, but nothing happened. “What? Why?”

  “I don’t know!” Aaltskog said. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s on me, darling.” Feln gritted his teeth. He kept cutting but he knew the end was coming.

  Before Aaltskog could answer, a bright light appeared around Denxeiter. It took Feln a moment to realize that it wasn’t the light of Resonance.

  “What the—?”

  “Look!” Aaltskog said. Feln looked up to see the other Hyper Battle
Machines, Es Wird Finster included, swirling around Denxeiter in a high speed circle. Together, the four of them were using their shields to protect their fellow Space Knight from harm.

  Since all of them still had fully functional shields and they were splitting the incoming fire between the four of them, they were able to protect Denxeiter. The concentrated enemy beams hitting the multiple shields had caused the bright light. Feln also saw that the enemy fire was lessening as more of their ships got destroyed by Francescan ships that had moved in to almost point blank range. Maybe Denxeiter didn’t enter Resonance and risk Aaltskog’s life because he knew help was coming, Feln thought.

  “Hallelujah!’ Aaltskog yelled.

  “Feln, you need to move faster,” Kriemhilde said. “We’re taking care of the bugs’ shots, but the black energy is coming in fast. We have to go.”

  Feln glanced over and saw the energy wave rushing toward them. “Oh damn, almost done.” Leaving Ganxeiter’s sword stuck in the alien hull, he pulled out the big gun and fired in a circular formation the rest of the way. He holstered the gun and went back to work with the sword. With the hull weakened from the shots, he was able to cut through the hull more easily. Finally, with one last burst of effort, he wrenched the section of ship loose. Writhing tentacles and organs dangled from the chunk of ship as Denxeiter lifted it up. “Got it. Let’s get outta here!”

  As the other Hyper Battle Machines continued to shield Denxeiter, Es Wird Finster reached down to pull Denxeiter to safety. The dark energy was getting stronger with every second and Feln could feel Denxeiter getting pulled sideways toward it. The alien ships had stopped firing, either because they were afraid to hit their queens or the queens themselves had told them to stop firing for fear of getting hit.

  Without having to worry about shielding Denxeiter from enemy fire anymore, the three other Hyper Battle Machines were free to help Es Wird Finster pull it loose. Denxeiter’s only hand was full holding the large chunk of alien ship, Feln making sure to keep it at arm’s length to avoid a potential repeat of what happened to Katashka. Maksinder grabbed hold of Denxeiter’s body with one its enormous hands and held on to the other Machines with its remaining hands.