by Stella Cassy
I’d flown us just below one of the larger Pax flyers, which was about twice the size of the craft I was piloting. I pointed the nose of our ship towards its underside, and then, making sure once again that the shields were at full power, I hit the gas and…
… we didn’t even feel a thing. Like a hot knife through a vacuum we tore through the Pax ship, splitting it into two. I checked the shields. They were absolutely fine. Not even a blip registered.
I spun the ship around and dived down to see the damage. The Pax ship had been sliced neatly in half, and both pieces were now windmilling their way down to the rocky, smoky surface below us. I followed behind, stopping us just a few yards above the ground as the two halves of the Pax ship crashed beside us.
“Essie?” Moddoc asked, staring at me wide-eyed.
“Yes?” I said sweetly.
“Please don’t do that again.”
I waved his complaint away with a flick of my hand.
“It was fun though, wasn’t it? And I told you this ship had shields. We didn’t even feel it, did we?”
“No, but—” Moddoc stopped mid-sentence, his gaze fixed in the air.
Above us were a dozen Pax flyers, come to investigate what had happened to their companion. They clearly couldn’t see us, as they weren’t attacking. The cloaking was holding up very well indeed.
Nice and gently, I lifted my craft up until we were in the middle of the pack of Pax craft.
“Shhh,” I said to Moddoc with a grin. “We’re not in a vacuum anymore.”
“Well they’re clearly not going to hear us through that shielding either. It’s like we’re surrounded by rock.”
“Yeah. I guess you’re right.”
The Pax ships were around us on all sides, and I decided to play just one more little game with them. I nudged right up beside one of them.
“Hey!” I yelled. “Pax! Can you hear me!?”
Moddoc laughed at me but did not complain. Now he’d seen what this ship was capable of, and that I wasn’t being quite as reckless as he’d assumed, he was loosening up.
“Nope. They can’t hear you.”
“I bet they’ll hear this.”
I positioned us right behind one of the ships that was close to its neighbor, then I gently pushed my ship up against it. We didn’t even feel the thump inside our ship, but from the slight rocking, they probably did aboard the Pax vessel.
They definitely felt it when I did my next maneuver though. I pushed gently on my thruster controls, and deftly shoved the ship we were beside into its neighbor, which in turn crashed into the one next to it. Three of the ships smashed into each other, and the pilots each hit their controls wildly as they tried to figure out what the hell was going on.
Giggling, I threw our ship five hundred yards above, and spun us around so that we could watch the mayhem below.
The three ships had all reacted in different ways to their sudden collision, one of them zooming off to the side and crashing violently with another Pax ship, the other two powering into each other, and then entering a spinning embrace of death as they crashed into the rocky ground below.
The remaining Pax ships rapidly flew apart from each other, as if terrified their fellow pilots were going insane.
“There. That’s four less ships to worry about when we come back.”
“Okay. Enough playing. Let’s do a few surface crawls and see what else we can spot. I assume this ship is recording everything?”
“Of course. We’ll share the data with Tarion when we get back. Let him know I’m still useful.”
“He’s already more than impressed with you, Captain Black.” Moddoc leaned over and planted a kiss on my lips. “As am I.”
With a warm feeling running through me, we did a whistle-stop tour of the surface of Thirren, documenting the ground installations and all the atmosphere and space craft we could find.
Then, it was off back into space.
But we weren’t going home quite yet.
26
Moddoc
We blasted through the clouds, then the rest of the atmosphere, until the planet-light dimmed, and we were back in the familiar black embrace of the verse.
Essie sure was something. She had pulled a spaceship I’d never even heard the likes of out of her back pocket, and then taken me for the ride of my life. This thing flew like a… rocket? No. It was a million times more powerful and versatile.
And the shields… we cut through that Pax ship like magma through ice, not even feeling a bump. I knew she’d stolen this ship from somewhere, but I had a feeling that if the original owners ever found out they’d be really, really anxious to get it back.
To have a woman like her beside me was truly a blessing. For one whose life had seemed over such a short time ago, I was now feeling more alive than I had since Alm’s passing.
She whipped us out into space, then flung us back into orbit around Thirren. Then, she stood.
“Look at it,” she said, pointing at the Pax Prime ship that hung ominously in front of us. I didn’t like even being near it, not in a craft as small as this one. Even though I’d seen what the shields were capable of, it felt like trying to take a nap while an axe hovered over your neck.
“Dangerous,” I said, coming to stand behind her. Although she could stand up straight, even with her crowned and bejeweled hair, I had to lower my head and bend my knees.
“Dangerous. Yeah.” She stared up at the ship longingly. “Perhaps that’s why I want it so bad.”
I put my arms around her, pulling her backward against me. “You like dangerous?”
She turned her head, and gave me the lightest, most delicious kiss on the lips before turning back to stare at the ship.
“Yeah, I like dangerous.” She reached her arms back behind her and pulled me in to her, so that I rubbed against her firm buttocks. In an instant my body responded. She was like magic. A single breath, a single touch, a single look… that’s all she needed.
She wriggled against me, teasing me, knowing what was going to happen.
“Here?” I asked, the axe-head hovering above us now fading in significance in my mind.
Essie’s hands slipped back to her own waist, and she quickly undid the pants she was wearing. I needed no further urging. Before she could lower them, I was growling in her ear and yanking them down to her ankles. She wriggled up against me again, and it was all I could do to lower my own garments instead of tearing them apart.
Her hands reached back, grasping me, tugging and pulling at me with both hands while her eyes still lingered up at the Pax Prime vessel above.
“Fuck me Moddoc,” she said in a soft voice. “Fuck me while I stare at my bounty.”
She was crazy. Stone-cold crazy. And I couldn’t get enough of it. I pushed her forward so her hands were up against the glass, her rear pointed toward me. I grabbed her by the waist and held her tight as I pushed myself up against her.
I meant to tease her a moment, run up and down the outside of her hot wetness, but she wanted none of it. As soon I was directly behind her, she pushed herself back, impaling herself on me, making us both groan.
Grabbing her hips hard with one hand, I used the other to turn her head back to me so our mouths could meet. We kissed, a wet, burning, tongue-sucking exchange of lust that made me thrust into her harder and harder. Then, she was gone, again, staring up at that Pax Prime ship like it was another lover.
I wrapped a hand around her neck, gently squeezing her then releasing, squeezing then releasing as I continued to earn a gasp with every flick of my hips.
“Fuck…” she muttered.
Then there were no more words.
Just squeals and moans, pants and sighs.
And finally, after such frantic thrusting that I worried whether the inside of the ship was as well-shielded as the outside, we finished together in a glorious battle-cry of triumph.
Essie’s head dropped forward and pressed against the sweat-stained glass, while I felt her still contracting aro
und me in a long, juddering finish that her body just didn’t seem to want to end.
“Moddoc… fuck…” she finally managed.
“Just did,” I said, squeezing her breast through her top.
She tried to laugh but it came out as more of a pant.
A few minutes later we were snuggling in a chair, her still staring up at the Pax Prime ship floating above us.
“Big day, tomorrow, Silver.”
“A great day. The day of my redemption.”
“The day I get my own full-size battleship,” she said with a grin as she rubbed her head against my chin.
We sat in comfortable silence for a moment. But we were both thinking the same thing.
Only if we survive.
27
Esmerelda
I stood on the bridge in front of my commander’s chair. This would not be a day for sitting. The final plans had been drawn up and were about to be put in effect.
My fleet was to take the lead, punching a whole through the ring of ships guarding the atmosphere of Thirren, and then clearing a path among the Pax flyers below. Tarion’s main fleet would follow behind, tackling the lumbering Pax Prime ships with his main battleships, then landing the ground forces.
That was where Moddoc would get to shine. He would be down there, battling it out hand to hand with the Pax bastards face to face. I kind of envied him that. I wouldn’t mind a little wetwork. But that isn’t where my skill lay. I could do a hell of a lot more damage with my fleet than I could running around playing GI Jane.
“Status?” I called to my bridge.
“Ready to go, sir,” Oyna said.
“Battle ready, sir,” Wrigo replied with a salute.
My ship was in the center of our little fleet. At the very front I had the Dirty Duet, each of which had one of my best pilots aboard and would do their best to cause as much mayhem as they could on the planet below.
Up here, I had my most heavily armored and shielded ships at the front, ones that could bear the brunt of the defensive blasts the Pax would launch at them. Most of the trader and pirate commanders were in their own personal ships, surrounding mine, sending their lumbering warships to the front while they took a more strategic position for themselves and their crews.
“Ready?” I called to Moddoc.
He raised two fists in the air and answered me with a roar that sent a shiver down my spine. I shuddered and regretted that I didn’t have time for one more ‘rest-break’ before we began.
“Commander Tarion has sent the signal. On your mark, sir,” Oyna said with an excited, chirruping series of clicks.
I felt a nudge at my thigh. When I looked down, I saw Puff, smiling up at me, a hydro-pack clutched in his hands. I ruffled his head, took the drink from him, and took a sip. He fell over backward in delight that his gift had been well-received.
“A good sign,” said Moddoc with a happy, throaty growl.
“I rather think it is.”
“Oyna, send the signal. All ships. Shields up. Battle formation. Stay cloaked as long as possible.” I held up my hand in the air. “In three… two… one…” I dropped my fist to my side. “Go!”
Oyna hit a button to send the commands, Wrigo gave the nod to our pilot.
I stared at the screen in front of us. We were rapidly approaching Thirren, and more and more of the stars behind began to be blocked out by the hulking mass of the planet as we drew closer and closer.
The Pax Prime ships appeared as two little flecks, as the duo on our side of the planet slowly came into view.
“No response yet,” Oyna said calmly. “It suggests we remain undetected.”
We zoomed forward, and soon the large Pax Prime ships grew to the size of coins, and little dots began to appear around them, each of the dots a cruiser the size of the vessel I was commanding.
“There’s… there’s something happening,” Oyna said. “It looks like two of the cruisers are sending out distress signals.”
I narrowed my eyes. I was pretty sure I knew what had happened.
“Two cruisers disabled. And… destroyed.”
There was a whooping and cheering from the bridge, and I couldn’t help but smile myself.
“Message from Tarion. ‘Congratulations’.”
Moddoc and I exchanged a satisfied look. Already we had a minor victory. Let’s just hope there were many more before the day was over.
“Sir, the Pax are bringing their ships around. Forming a battle formation to block our trajectory,” Oyna said with a few perfunctory clicks that indicated she was merely reporting facts, but without emotion. “And… the two other Pax Prime ships are coming around. All four are now on our side of the planet.”
Ugh. I was hoping to avoid them for the time being. It was Tarion’s job to deal with the real big ones, we were hoping to carve a route through the cruisers first.
“Good. It’ll be easier to get them all if they group together,” I said confidently.
“Order all ships to fire missiles as soon as they’re in range. Don’t hold back. Let’s hit ‘em hard and fast.”
“Sir,” Wrigo grunted in response, turning to face his control console. On the screen the enemy ships grew larger and larger, until they were blocking out a significant part of the planet below. “Missiles away. We have eight thousand birds in the air. First hits in three… two…”
You couldn’t have wiped the smile off my face. On screen, half a dozen of the cruisers disappeared in giant explosions as they were struck by flocks of missiles so thick their defenses had no hope. The giant ships wiped out, in an instant.
I stared hard at one of the Pax Prime ships, as it too took a beating. A thousand or more missiles crashed into it, but most of them were destroyed by their defensive guns or popped like soap bubbles on the high-powered shields.
“Target Pax Prime One for the next volley,” I ordered. Although I wanted to take one of the ships for myself, I wanted more to live through the day. We couldn’t have four of them hanging about. Pax Prime One was the ship that had just weathered a thousand or so missile strikes. Its shields would be weakened already.
“Sir.” Wrigo tapped at his console. “And… all missiles targeting Pax Prime One. Sir, we have incoming. They have returned fire. Missiles arriving shortly.”
I braced myself against my chair, hoping that my ship wasn’t going to take the brunt of their first defensive assault on us. On the side of the giant screen in front of us was a list of all our ships. I stared at it, willing them all to stay lit up in bright green.
They didn’t.
First one, then three more, and then another dozen winked out.
There was a slight shuddering, but nothing else happened to our own vessel.
“Sir, we took substantial damage. We lost sixteen ships. The pirates aren’t going to be happy…”
“I don’t care if they’re happy,” I said with a growl. “Tell them to take out their anger on the Pax Prime!”
“Sir. And missiles arriving at Pax Prime One in two, one…” I gripped the chair, digging my fingers into it, staring at the ship on the screen and willing it to disappear.
The ship lit up, and then was completely consumed by thousands of explosions which filled our sensor arrays with signals, blinding them for a few microns as rays from every end of the spectrum flew out of the missiles.
“Damnit,” I said when the visual returned and I could see that the Pax Prime ship was still, largely, intact.
“Sir… Pax Prime One… it’s disabled. Engines, destroyed. Power control gone. Weapons system disabled. We did it!”
The fucker might still be floating, but its fate was sealed. Thank the stars. Shame there were still three more of them to go.
“Bring us around, let’s see if we can’t slingshot past the planet and drop in from the other side. Order all ships to adjust trajectory and re-cloak if they’re able.”
“Good idea, sir,” Oyna said with an excited click. Clearly she’d been nervous.
�
��More missiles arriving… now.”
Our own ship shuddered much harder this time. We must have taken a few hits, though the shields seemed to have largely held. I stared at my list of ships and felt my heart plunge when another eight names flickered off from bright green to dead-gray.
The course adjustment was soon caught by the Pax, and they began their own much shorter jaunt around the planet. I was pleased to see that one of the large Pax Prime ships stayed behind, as did thirty or so cruisers, to guard the disabled vessel. It must have someone important aboard.
“Order no one else to fire on Pax Prime One. They’re wasting resources protecting it. If we destroy it, they’ll send everything back after us.”
“Yes, sir,” Wrigo said, immediately setting the ship to non-target status.
After a brief lull, we were flying back to Thirren approaching from the opposite direction, this time with a slightly smaller defensive force waiting for us.
“Arrow formation. Set a target right between the two Pax Prime ships. We’ll blast our way straight through to the planet below. Take out what we can on the way down.”
The ships in our armada arranged themselves into a spearhead, and we started to fly directly toward the enemy. It was a risky maneuver, but now that they had been weakened somewhat, we should have a good shot. If we were going fast enough, they’d barely have time to target us as we zoomed past and crashed into the atmosphere. We’d just have to make sure we had enough power to pull up before we flew below sea-level.
“Flak forward. All of it.”
Wrigo issued the commands, and we sent out a shield of every last flak missile we had in front of our ships. Since we were going to try and do this in one pass, there wasn’t much point in saving it. The flak would hopefully destroy many of their incoming missiles and confuse many of the others to send them flying off to anywhere-not-here.
“Missiles incoming. Uncountable numbers… can’t get a reading… too much flak.”
I snorted at that. Of course it could work both ways. With the flak deflecting every ray in the band it would be hard to make sense of anything for some time going forward. But, in theory, the confusion should work more to our benefit than it would to theirs. We just needed to punch through.