“Don’t risk it, we’ll come to you then. Reconfigure the mind shield to allow LeBoeuf to board.”
“Want me to remotely fly this ship?” Penelope offered her.
“Can you?”
“Not very well, but I can get it moving in the general direction of the Kepler. They’ll have to do the rest.”
Foster and her two-person bridge crew, one if you excluded Penelope since she was a hologram on another ship, went to execute their complicated task. Penelope hacked into its computers and instructed the Marcus Antonius to move forward. Foster commanded the operation while Maxwell played the role of several bridge officers, running from computer to computer.
Rail gun and particle beam cannon blasts zipped past them, and sometimes slammed into their fading shields. The Marcus Antonius made its all-or-nothing fearless push into the crossfire, heading toward the Kepler. Fighters swarmed them, launching a salvo of plasma missiles at the Marcus Antonius. Maxwell manned its anti-fighter rail guns, sending streaks of white and red tracer fire to their intended targets. Nuclear warheads were launched by the Terran loyal ships. Maxwell managed to shoot down those heading to Taxah. The rest ended up hitting the Marcus Antonius, or UNE allied ships. It took a few seconds for the blinding light from those blasts to subside from the view screen.
“Another hit like that and we’re done,” Maxwell reported.
Tactical overlays on the view screen reported the Marcus Antonius’ shield had failed. Another hit would indeed be the end of them. Two UNE ships had turned into molten metal due to eating a single direct nuclear strike with their shields down.
The Kepler’s sight on the screen expanded once the crossfire zone had been cleared, leaving the UNE and Terran ships to fight each other. Violent tremors hit the Marcus Antonius again, and without shields they were powerful enough to launch Foster from her chair, causing several bridge instruments to explode knocking Maxwell to the floor.
When she got to her feet, she saw what triggered the sudden blasts. The stingray shaped Draconian stealth ship decloaked, diving up, down, and round the Marcus Antonius, burning holes through its hull with its mighty tachyon cannons.
“Where the fuck did that come from?” Maxwell said, coming to his feet.
“It’s the stealth ship,” Foster grunted.
“That thing is railing us,” Maxwell said. “Got five hull breaches—” New tremors threw them to the floor again, this time it ignited small fires on the bridge “Make that seven breaches, we’re venting atmo.”
“LeBoeuf, get to the bridge now with Chevallier,” Foster transmitted to her. “Standby to teleport us to the Kepler.”
The black smoke that filled the bridge triggered her to cough rapidly. Maxwell too, when it finally got past his cybernetic implants. From the darkness of the smoke, was a quick burst of teleportation light. From that light emerged LeBoeuf carrying Chevallier’s body. Foster grabbed the duffle bag she brought, slinging it over her shoulder.
“Gather up, we’re almost in range!” LeBoeuf yelled.
The two did so. For a split second, Foster was about to yell to Penelope. Then she saw her hologram flicker and fade way, reminding her that Penelope was never on the bridge to start with.
Looking at Chevallier, Foster asked LeBoeuf to, “Send us directly to sickbay.”
There was choking smoke all around Foster one moment, then soothing psionic light fifteen seconds later. When the light faded, she and the rest were back on the Johannes Kepler, in sickbay as requested. Kostelecky came running out of her office after seeing what LeBoeuf held in her blood-stained arms.
That was one problem taken care of.
It was time for the next. Foster ran to the bridge.
55 Foster
XSV Johannes Kepler
Far Taxah orbit, Uelcovis system
October 17, 2118, 03:57 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Odelea stared at Foster first when she arrived on the bridge to take command. Foster imagined the look on her face to be one of shock and terror. She was, after all, wearing a battle-torn uniform covered in dried blood. And her face? Don’t get her started on that. There were a number of similar stares aimed at Foster as she approached her captain’s chair to relieve Saressea.
Saressea staggered for a moment when she stood up with her tail tilted upward and frozen. “What the hell happened to you, Foster?”
Foster sat down. “I bathed in the blood of my enemies.”
Saressea moved out of sight to return to engineering. “I don’t doubt it,” she added before stepping past the bridge’s sliding doors.
The silence on the bridge was short lived. The stealth bio-ship came about quickly to resume its assault, this time on the Kepler. The faint trembles of the Kepler swept away the grim thoughts about Williams, and the lack of his presence on the bridge, or ship for that matter.
“Direct hit,” Chang reported. “Overshields holding for now.”
She analyzed the contents on the view screen, noting the drifting and burning wreckage of the Marcus Antonius, the ship she and the rest had fled from. Despite its grim condition, it was still intact, and the stealth ship that was so eager to end it now ignored it, focusing on the Kepler instead.
“Why aren’t they finishing the Marcus Antonius off?” Foster mused out loud.
“Most likely the same reason why the Draconian fleet just changed course,” Tolukei said.
The tactical hologram updated with the location of all ships in the sector thanks to Tolukei’s ESP. It showed the fleet of Draconian bio-ships pushing past what remained of the Imperial fleet, ignoring the battling Earth ships, and beelining toward the Kepler.
Foster’s return to the Kepler doomed its crew.
“It’s me,” she said with a hint of despair. “The Draconians weren’t gathering to attack the station, they were gathering to get to me.”
“And when we opened the maelstrom here, they swarmed over to dispatch us,” Tolukei said.
“That stealth ship targeted the Marcus Antonius because I was there, now it’s after the Kepler once again.”
“If that’s the case, why didn’t they chase us during the first encounter?” Chang asked.
“It must have been the vortex key, remember the first we broke during our exit,” Foster said. “It must have done somethin’ to the vortex that prevented ‘em from reopening it.”
“Meanwhile, the one we recently used still operates,” Tolukei said. “It is very possible you might be correct.”
Foster grinned and put on her no-fear face. “If they want a piece of me, they’s gonna have to come and get it. Chang, take us to the Terran Legion fleet.”
“Uh, didn’t we just determine that’s a shitshow?”
“Just do it and get us really close to their ships.”
“Understood, Cap, taking us there now!”
“LeBoeuf,” Foster said, spinning her chair to look at her. “Can you help with the overshields?”
The EDF warlock crossed her arms, shaking her head. “I’m not a ship psionic.”
“Neither is Tolukei, and he’s doin’ just fine,” Foster said. “I need you to give Tolukei and Nereid everything you got. We’s gonna need those overshields to remain as strong as possible.”
“I’ll do what I can . . .” LeBoeuf said
She joined Tolukei and Nereid at the psionic workstation. The three psionics both entered a deep trance, making their minds become one with the Kepler, feeling what existed beyond its hull, adding more power to the overshields, and using telekinesis to help thrust the ship in any direction needed.
The performance increase, while noticeable, wasn’t huge. Foster went with it anyways and sat back to face the view screen, watching closely as her plan unfolded.
The Kepler’s engines flared, sending it charging back into the crossfire between the feuding ships of Earth origin, dodging the exchange of nuclear missiles, plasma missiles, swarming fighters, relying on the enhanced overshield to soak up the hits from rail gun and particle beam blasts from both sides
. The stealth ship followed, leading the charge of the incoming Draconian fleet. Foster dragged the Draconians directly into the middle of the crossfire.
“Two Terran loyal ships have locked weapons onto us!”
“Take whatever evasive action you can, Chang, but keep us on course!”
She saw nothing but weapons fire streak across the view screen. Occasionally, it would move out of view when Chang forced the Kepler to make a sharp roll to the left, or flip to escape from missiles. Ships came out of view, and then in view, and then out again. One moment they saw bio-ships, and then next the stealth ship as it tried to goad them into a dogfight. Chang really wanted to accept the challenge. Foster had to remind him to stay on course.
A hard turn to the right then a dive downward, well from her perspective at least, there was no up or down in space, brought the Kepler to face the bulk of the Terran Legion loyal ships, standing next to the space bridge they sought to take over.
“Another ship is locking onto us,” Chang said. “Exactly how close you need us to be?”
Foster looked at the clustered enemy vessels, and the tactical overlays on the view screen, listing their estimated distance. They were close.
“Another six kilometers ought to do it!” Foster assured him.
The clustered Terran ships grew larger, as did their weapons fire that repeatedly crashed into the Kepler’s forward overshields. The stealth ship from behind pounded the Kepler’s aft overshields, and soon its primary shields. The psionic team showed visual signs of stress and torment on their faces. They had to use all their combined psionic force to keep the forward overshields active, just in case a lucky shot with a nuke hit them dead-on. Chang was really good at swerving around those, thankfully.
After giving it their all, the Kepler dove in between the Terran ships, as did the stealth ship from behind. There was one ship targeting the Kepler at that point, the stealth ship.
“The Terrans stopped firing . . .” Chang said.
Foster resisted the urge to laugh. “The Dragon Knights are onboard the stealth ship, remember?”
The Kepler was flying extremely close to the Terran ships, with the stealth ship behind to maintain its ruthless pursuit of Foster. The Dragon Knight and Maiden were aboard the stealth ship last time Foster checked, along with their natural abilities to render anyone with HNI unconscious. As long as the Kepler continued to fly close to each and every Terran ship, with the stealth ship behind firing when it got the chance, the Terran crew found themselves on the floor, unable to perform their duties, and operate their ships.
The EVE AI could take over, but there was only so much one AI could do, and as for the fighters? Forget that, they were adrift and became easy prey for the incoming Draconian fleet and weapons fire from the UNE loyal ships. The Terran ships had become inert, with only automated weapons active and no overshields. They were defenseless, and the UNE took full advantage.
Unfortunately, Foster’s plan worked both ways. Soon after the Terran ships went dark, the minds of Odelea, LeBoeuf, and Maxwell shattered. They all held their heads screaming in agonizing pain, passing out onto the floor.
Foster cringed awkwardly. “Shit, forgot about them.”
“Yeah so, we just lost Saressea and our whole engineering team,” Chang said.
“As well as the psionic support LeBoeuf was providing,” Tolukei said, rising up after checking on her vitals.
The Kepler’s performance took a slight drop as a result. It served as a visual reminder to those left standing and lacking the implants, why they were selected for this mission in the first place. It was a small price to pay, the Terrans lost control of their minds and the operation of their ships, and it took pressure off the UNE fleet, allowing them to focus fire on them without retaliation, or overshields.
Foster had Chang keep the Kepler flying close circles around each of the Terran ships until the bulk of the Draconian fleet dropped out of FTL to unleash their barrage. Tachyon beams soared, and rampaging wyverns were scattered into space from the bio-ships. Their attacks were primarily focused on the Kepler, but the small recon vessel with its MRF active and an ace pilot at the helm, made them a hard target. The idle Terran fleet, not so much. Combined weapons fire from the UNE fleet and the Draconians turned the Terran ships into vapor and glowing red debris.
“The Terran ships have been eliminated, Captain,” Tolukei reported.
“Mister Chang, get away from that stealth ship,” Foster said.
She analyzed the tactical hologram that appeared over the view screen, identifying the position of the UNE fleet and the estimated trajectory of the surviving Imperial fleet.
She pointed to a region of space between the two. “Take us to those coordinates.”
Phase two of Foster’s plan went into motion, forcing Chang to execute his elite set of rolls and dives to evade Draconian weapons fire and the debris from the Terran fleet. Once they were clear of the messy situation, leaving it behind, Chang pushed the Kepler forward, the best he could, given the fact they had an engineering crew that was slowly recovering from their HNI disruption. Odelea, LeBoeuf, and Maxwell recovering were proof of that. The gap between the Kepler and the stealth ship had widened.
The Kepler’s extremely brief FTL jump came to an end making them flash into the region of space Foster directed him to.
“Now what?” Chang asked her.
“Duck.”
The Draconian fleet flashed above the Kepler one after another, locking their tachyon cannons onto it, and spewing new hordes of wyverns into the battle. To the right, the surviving Imperial fleets appeared, dropping out of sub light speeds, spraying countless bolts of plasma into the Draconians. To the left was the UNE fleet, exiting from a brief FTL jump to do what they should have done when they entered the system, help the Hashmedai, not start a war with them.
The Draconians’ tunnel vision pursuit of Foster and the Kepler led them into a pincer attack, or what Foster preferred to call a sandwich attack. The Imperial fleet and UNE fleet was the bread, and the Draconian fleet, was whatever you wanted to squish in between. And did they ever get squished in the assault. Foster and her bridge crew enjoyed their front row seats. The Kepler danced about to evade whatever weapon strikes the stealth ship launched, slipping in and out of reality with its cloaking abilities.
Ships exploded, none of them were of Earth or Paryo origin. The rapid healing abilities of the bio-ships couldn’t keep up with the assault. The Draconian fleet was reduced to four ships, one of them being a Charybdis that sank into the abyss of a storm in space it created.
“Maelstrom!” Tolukei said.
“Looks like they’re escaping,” Chang commented.
“Let ‘em go,” Foster said. “Hopefully, they’ll see this as a message not to follow me around.”
The surviving Draconian ships entered the maelstrom’s vortex, including the stealth ship that broke off its assault. Before it plunged back into the mysterious universe beyond, it spun around traveling in reverse facing the Kepler head-on as it backed away. The two rival ships gave each other a long stare down, before the ethereal clouds consumed it and the vortex shrank. The eternal blackness and dotted stars of space replaced the imagery of the vortex.
“Status of Taxah?” Foster asked as the blaring alarms stopped.
“A few dragons still on the surface,” Chang said, checking his instruments. “Nothing the Imperials can’t handle now their fleet is here. And not one nuke landed.”
The Kepler pulled away from the remains of the Draconian ships and the aftermath of the galaxy’s first major victory over their forces. Taxah lifted into view on the screen when the Kepler leveled off. The Hashmedai controlled Earth-like planet was saved from an orbital assault it wasn’t prepared for. Foster wondered if somewhere on the surface of that planet, in a largely populated city, was an eighteen-year-old girl spared from having to witness her planet get invaded and learn that her father, tragically, didn’t survive.
Epilogue
Central Jungles
Rainforest, Taxah, Uelcovis system
October 17, 2118, 14:27 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Master Gunnery Sergeant Chris Boyd approached a noteworthy drop in the jungles he made his home since his arrival. The jungles were hot, moist, and of full of exotic life and plants, basically what the Amazon rainforest on Earth would be like if humans had never existed. He was surrounded by millions of years of evolution and nature, it was a shame the Hashmedai controlled Taxah. He would have loved to have gone hiking here.
He double-checked his supplies. There was enough to last him another twenty days, longer if he spread them out. He had a feeling he wasn’t returning to the UNE anytime soon, and certainly not in the transport Chang dropped him off in the other day.
Boyd leaped off the cliff and glided down with his altered mass, thanks to the MRF in his protect suit. He touched down on the ground without making a sound, or snapping the tree branch his left foot fell on. He kept low like a wild animal stalking its prey in the bushes, as he made a two-hour trek to a small base overgrown with vegetation in the distance. His HNI delivered tactical scans of the area to his eyesight. No stealth targets were in the area according to thermal and infrared scans, and the structure was a lightly guarded, if it even had guards to start with.
Visually, the structure looked old while the elements did a number to it. It had been standing for years and built by the hands of Hashmedai. The tech on the exterior looked old, though some parts were clearly retrofitted as part of an upgrade. The older parts probably died and got replaced with new stuff.
A transport landing pad came into view when he moved closer to the structure. One large Hashmedai cargo transport was parked on it, and a quick check showed it was empty. Behind was a warehouse-like door that led into the structure. It was left open, whoever, or whatever, was on the transport was taken out and put into the structure. Boyd’s money was that it was the protective substance Foster and her team was waiting for. After all, the ship that was supposed to be bringing it to Taxah landed here, and not in Muro. Either someone hijacked it, or someone was doing something suspect. He entered the structure, keeping his aim forward, expecting the Hashmedai’s true nature to be revealed.
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