by Scott Baron
“I hadn’t made up my mind yet,” the teen replied, as he and Marty flew a lazy arc over the base. “I was thinking it might be nice to––”
A series of pulse blasts lit up the surface of the moon in the distance, the bright explosions growing rapidly closer.
“Freya, what is that?” Daisy barked, instantly switching gears and prepping for action.
“Hang on,” Freya replied. “Looks like three Ra’az vessels. A heavy cruiser and two smaller attack ships. Not a lot of firepower, but they seem to be attempting to target the solar energy collection fields.”
“Trying to cut the base’s power,” Sarah growled. “How long until we engage?”
A small swarm of tiny ships flew up from Dark Side, jetting out ahead of the two stealth ships as they slotted in for an intercept course.
“Is that Kip?” Daisy asked.
“Yes, it is,” a familiar male voice said over her open comms.
“Zed, what’s going on?” she asked the human fleet’s command AI.
“We’ve been hit with several probing attacks over the last several hours,” he replied. “Seems a cluster of Ra’az survivors managed to join forces and have started coordinating in an attempt to take down Dark Side. What they don’t seem to realize, since their global comms are cut, is that they’ve already lost the planet.”
“None of that matters in regards to the damage they’re causing up here,” Daisy noted.
“We know, but don’t worry, all of our weapons are trained on them. If they should somehow make it past the little AI defense team, we’ve got the base covered.”
“Defense team?” Marty asked, a bit confused.
“Yes. We’ve been running simulated training practice with the AIs your people installed in war ships for the assault on Earth. Now that the mission is over, we thought they should be properly broken in and trained up.”
“But this is live fire, Zed,” Daisy pointed out.
“Indeed, it is. Glad you noticed,” he replied sarcastically. “But it’s also a relatively controlled situation. In fact, I’d wager this is as controlled a battle as we could ever have them engage in. It’s good for them to learn to fight––for real, that is. Yes, there’s risk, but there’s always risk in war, and once the main body of the fleet jumps away from here to the real battles light years away, these little fellas will be the main line of defense around here. I say let them practice while they have the opportunity.”
Daisy observed the little ships swoop and swarm around the Ra’az attackers. Indeed, they had greatly improved in both their tactics and skills. So much so, in fact, that the Ra’az quickly realized they were not going to be able to reach the base.
“Where are they going, Daze?”
Heading for the shipyards, it looks like.
With the base itself a hardened target, the Ra’az redirected their efforts on the Chithiid vessels being retrofitted in an open plot of lunar soil nearby that had been converted to a work space. With their shielding offline, hulls weakened as they underwent modifications, and possessing minimal functional weaponry, they were the next best thing for the vengeful Ra’az.
A target of opportunity.
Unfortunately for them, the smaller ships were nothing if not persistent, dogging them every step of the way.
“Huh. So that’s where the term ‘dogfight’ came from,” Daisy mused as she watched them nip at the larger ships like Chihuahuas hectoring a larger, Mastiff-like opponent.
In no time, the buzzing cluster of ships drove the Ra’az attackers farther from the shipyards and the defenseless ships, ultimately forcing them back to the dangerous space between Dark Side and the orbiting fleet.
It was a no man’s land for a hostile, and they quickly realized the mistake they had made when a fully functional Chithiid ship––retrofitted with strengthened shielding, armament, and improved drive systems––swung into their path.
Its new cannons swung from their hiding places within the hull, quickly locking into firing position and targeting the trio of Ra’az ships.
The attackers spun into a desperate evasive pattern, but the Chithiid gunner’s aim was true.
The first ship went down with a single well-placed pulse blast. The other two required a few more shots before they too sustained terminal damage and blew to pieces.
“Too bad,” Zed sighed. “It would have been nice to commandeer that heavy cruiser. We don’t have many of them, and they provide more convenient firepower to go along with their enhanced element of surprise of being a Ra’az ship. Lets our guys get that much closer when they infiltrate the Ra’az, ya know?”
“Yeah, I know,” Daisy replied. “But the base and ships are safe, and that’s priority one at the moment.”
“That it is,” Zed replied. “So, how was the survey of the Ra’az fleet? Were you able to gather more detailed intel this time around?”
“Yeah,” Marty chimed in. “It looks like they’ve got a series of battle station hub-type things that the main battleships and supporting Ra’az vessels periodically rotate their crews out to when they’re not actively on a mission.”
“Sort of like a portable housing facility of some sort, then?” Zed asked. “Kind of like a hive away from home, if you think about it.”
“Yes! That’s what we were just saying,” Arlo said, excitedly. “And if those bastards are all gathered together like that, then when we hit the fleet, we should try to make those prime targets. Catch ’em with their pants down.”
“Normally I would make a comment about decorum in war,” Zed said, “but where the Ra’az are concerned, I’m in full agreement. Kill the fuckers any time you can, any way you can.”
“Such language from an AI, Zed,” Daisy said with mock surprise
“Well, when it comes to the Ra’az, I’m known to have a bit of a temper,” he said with a rumbling chuckle. “In any case, this is all fodder for the full war council. I’ve already alerted them of your return. We’ll be having a debriefing and tactical review in five hours at shift change. Why don’t you get cleaned up and get a little something to eat in the meantime?”
“Good idea,” Freya agreed. “You really need to stop skipping meals, Daisy. It’s not healthy. You’ve got to keep your energy up, you know.”
“Jeez, when did she become the mom in this relationship?” Sarah asked, amused.
I know, right?
“She does have a point, though. I can tell you’re running a bit low. Stuff’s rumbling around that shouldn’t be. Best get some food in ya.”
Thanks, oh-trusty-internal-fuel-gauge sister of mine. You don’t have to tell me twice, Daisy replied.
“Okay, you two. I’ll heed your wise words of advice and head back to the happy feeding trough of Dark Side’s mess hall,” Daisy said.
“Is Finn there?” Sarah asked.
“Why? You looking for him?” Daisy asked with an eyebrow high and askew.
“He’s one hell of a chef, Daze. If you want a meal, why not make it a good one?”
“Uh-huh. All for the food.”
“Is there something going on we should know about?” Zed asked. “Has Finn done something wrong?”
“No, nothing like that,” Sarah said. “Just an ongoing disagreement my sister and I have been having. Nothing to worry about.”
“Oh, all right, then,” Zed said. “I’ll leave you to it for now. I want to take the kids through a replay of their run-in with those Ra’az ships. They’re getting a lot better at analyzing their own mistakes. Pretty soon they’ll be a crack team of fighter pilots.”
“And hopefully a bit less obsessed with toast,” Daisy added.
“Ah, yes. Kip.” Zed sighed, knowingly. “Yeah, that one’s got some issues, he does. Helluva good shot, though.”
“I know. I’ve seen first-hand.”
“Oh, that’s right. He was your ride off the planet when you were pursuing the Ra’az warp ships.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Until Freya came along, that
is,” he added.
“Happy to be of service,” Freya said cheerfully. “That was my maiden flight, you know. Funny, but looking back, I realize now that it was quite an unusual first step.”
“And you performed admirably,” Daisy commended her.
“Aww, thanks. But you’re biased.”
“Of course I am. You’re my kid. But that doesn’t make what you did any less impressive.”
“Quite,” a staticky man’s voice added, faintly.
“Who said that?” Zed asked
“Oh, probably just one of the little AI ships listening in,” Freya said.
“It didn’t sound like one.”
“With all the interference, we should really look into boosting their transmitter arrays, now that the frantic rush of battle is over,” Freya replied as she quietly locked down her own internal comms connections tight. “Anyway, I really should be getting my crew down to Dark Side. I know Daisy and Vince would appreciate a little quality time before they get dragged off to another lengthy tactics meeting.”
“Point taken. All right, then, I’ll be talking to you all in a few hours,” Zed said as he cut off his comms.
“Okay, Sis, let’s get some grub,” Daisy said.
“Works for me.”
Freya and Marty pulled off from the fleet and headed down toward Dark Side’s open docking spaces. Once Daisy and Sarah were safely offloaded, Freya was going to have words with her mischievous guest, just as soon as she was safely ensconced in the signal-proof walls of her fabrication hangar.
Chapter Four
“Better,” Sarah said, eyeing Daisy’s braided hair approvingly as they walked to the sparring room on Dark Side Base.
“He’s trying,” she replied. “And compared to last month––”
“A world of difference,” Sarah agreed.
“It’s really just muscle memory, ya know? Once your fingers get used to moving in that pattern, braiding is a snap.”
“Says the girl with no fingers,” Sarah retorted.
“I could share yours, if you’d just agree to Freya’s memory exchange. I mean, at least it would feel like I had a body again, even if it was you.”
“Not happening. I told you, I don’t want her poking around in my head any further, and she’s definitely not playing with my memories.”
“Sarah has a point, though,” Daisy interjected. “I mean, you wouldn’t be changing your own memories, just adding each other’s to the mix. Kind of like compiling two sets of almost identical documents together so the blank spots are all filled in.”
“Let it go, Daze.”
“Fine. But as your sister, I still think it might not be a bad idea.”
They arrived at the sparring room to the slapping sound of fists hitting pads.
“Someone else is here,” Sarah noted.
“I thought it was just going to be Vince training with us,” Daisy remarked as she opened the door wide.
Circling each other slowly, Vince and Arlo were already glistening with a sheen of sweat as the younger man worked through another set of punching and kicking drills while the elder of the pair held a set of pads.
“Three,” Vince said.
Arlo quickly threw a jab, followed by a cross and a hook.
“Double one.”
He launched two jabs in rapid succession.
“Double one, four, right kick,” Vince commanded.
The teen’s left hand jabbed twice again, quickly followed by a jab, cross, hook, and uppercut, but now with a right roundhouse kick added to the end.
“Sprawl, double right, left.”
Arlo hit the ground, then leapt to his feet, letting loose the combination of right and left kicks.
“Time,” Vince said. “Okay, dude, that was really good. Grab some water, then we’ll get back to it with our new guests.”
Daisy wrapped her arms around her man and planted a warm kiss on his lips.
“Mmm. Salty,” she said with a grin.
“Hey, Sarah,” he called to the nanotech replacement arm-toting woman accompanying her sister. “You’re not gonna get too crazy on me with that thing, are you?” he asked, gesturing to her nanite-composite limb.
“Don’t worry, Vince. I’ll go easy on you,” she said with a laugh as she began limbering up. “Besides, if it’s too much, you can always spar with the kid and I’ll work with Daisy.”
“Hey, why do I always have to fight the ones with metal arms?” Daisy asked with a joking grin.
“Not metal. Nanite-composite,” Sarah corrected.
“It sure makes you move faster, though,” Arlo said, capping his water bottle and drying his face with a towel. “Tamara was showing me a few moves the other day, and holy crap, she’s quick.”
“She’s a bit of a special case,” Daisy said. “Though she’s lost a lot of that angry edge she’d been carrying around.”
“Getting our planet back may have played a little part in that,” Vince noted. “That, and I hear she and Shelly have been going to Maarl’s little fight club pretty regularly. It’s starting to sound like they may even expand it into an actual tournament kind of thing. For the ones who aren’t just doing it to work out disagreements anymore, that is.”
“Good for them. Everyone needs an outlet to let off a little steam now and then,” Sarah said. “As for you, kid, what’s your deal? You don’t seem like the angry sort.”
“Oh, I’m not,” Arlo replied as he strapped his padded gloves back on. “I just like to be prepared. You never know what might come your way, so hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst, as my dad always said.”
“You should see him move, Sarah. He’s actually really good,” Vince commented approvingly.
“Thanks,” the teen said, blushing slightly. “Been training since I was a kid.”
“You still are a kid,” Sarah snarked.
“Hey, now. Play nice,” Daisy chided her sister with a little grin. “So, the kid’s got some moves, eh? Okay, then. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Daisy and Arlo moved off to one side of the room, then dove right in. After a few minutes testing his reflexes, Daisy had to admit, the kid had skill, and despite his non-stop yammering outside the sparring circle, once inside, he was all business.
Sarah and Vince set to work on the other half of the room, testing each other’s defenses as they got into the groove.
While Sarah had received a combat upload from Freya as she was being reconstructed, the vast majority of Vince’s skills were acquired by good old-fashioned muscle memory. That, and some recent neuro-stim updates he’d begun trickling into his skill sets after his run-in with Alma’s people.
One could never be too prepared, he reasoned.
The group spent the better part of an hour sparring together, sharing skills and laughs as they sharpened their abilities. Soon enough, the time for casual fighting would be done, and a far more deadly variety would take its place.
“Maarl is working with an ever-growing number of Chithiid rebels,” Daisy said to the assembled group gathered in Dark Side’s command center. “His first wave has already passed the accelerated training program and have been inserting into the Chithiid fleet, one small group at a time.”
The crews of the Váli and Dark Side sat around a long table. They’d been forced to abandon their usual meeting place in the mess hall due to the influx of visitors to the base.
It wasn’t crowded in the smaller chamber, but it lacked that candid and relaxed air the mess hall lent to their talks, with Finn whipping them up snacks as they planned, keeping them all well-fed and in good spirits.
“Until we have the entire Ra’az fleet thoroughly mapped out, I propose we continue to limit our incursions to these minor levels,” Commander Mrazich said as he looked over the ever-growing list of cataloged vessels in the enemy fleet.
“I agree, Commander, though I’d also hope we could place more than a handful of tiny ships into the bulk of their fleet,” Zed said. “If we manage to ha
ve even a few of our larger rebel-crewed vessels embedded sooner rather than later, we would be able to seed our people through their fleet far more extensively.”
“While I am inclined to agree with Zed, I must also remind you all that we still are unsure exactly how closely the Ra’az monitor the Chithiid ships in their fleet,” Sid noted.
“It looks like they’ve pretty well sequestered themselves to their own ships,” Marty said over the comms. “From what Freya and I could tell, the Chithiid are largely left to their own devices, with just a shepherding group of loyalist ships keeping them in line.”
“What?” Freya asked. “You said something about shepherds?”
“Are you paying full attention, kiddo?” Daisy asked. “You seem distracted.”
“I’m listening. It’s just there are some systems things I need to take care of.”
“You need my help?”
“Nah, I’m fine. I’m focused. Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay,” Daisy said. “So, what do you think, then? About our ability to infiltrate our own ships into the Chithiid part of the fleet?”
“I’d say it should be pretty easy, actually,” Freya said. “The Ra’az don’t seem to pay all that much attention to them, and even the ship-to-ship transfers are infrequently monitored. They don’t seem particularly worried about hostilities.”
“Yeah, it’s kind of like a big old bear crashing through the woods,” Marty said. “It’s so badass, it never expects anyone to actually attack it.”
Daisy and Sarah shared a look. They knew bears, all right.
“And that cockiness is what makes it so easy for us to get our guys in position,” he continued. “The ones we’ve already snuck in were small ships, so they just acted like they strayed outside the main body and were falling back in line. No one questioned their presence at all. Because the Chithiid rely on the Ra’az for all levels of fleet support, they never worry about them acting up, so it looks like they don’t even really keep track of them. If someone drifts off and gets lost, tough luck for them.”
“That’s tactically idiotic,” Zed noted.