So chapter 4 took me about a billion years to write. Okay, maybe just 4 months, but it sure felt like a huge time. Anyways, this chapter is super huge with a long battle so yeah...
Also, woohoo, it's no longer an untitled fanfic! #EXTREMEHAPPYFACE
In any case, at the end I kinda got tired of this being worked on for long & just pushed it out there. So I'm kinda on the fence regarding the ending of this chapter. So give me some feedback on that, yo!
Don't forget, this is the first time I'm
putting one of my stories online. So please give me feedback, point out
flaws in my writing so I can fix them & tell me how I can improve
the story in pacing, technique, dialogue, characterization &
whatnot.
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Chapter
4 – Skirmish at Sedocho 7
Residing
on the very outskirt of the Kostaii nebula, Sedocho 7 is one of the few binary
star systems in the Sedocho sector. Except for a few automated scientific vessels
studying the two stars, the system is otherwise uninhabited. The FTL beacon at
Sedocho 7 connects to a long range beacon located inside the Kostaii nebula.
About 8 parsecs in diameter and filled with young massive protostars giving the
emission nebula an orange-red hue, Kostaii is a spectacular sight to behold and
drew many tourists to Sedocho prior to the Federation-Mantis War.
Presently,
a large, red, bomber-class craft of the Sevril clan military was stationed a
little ways off from the Sedocho 7 FTL beacon. The bomber had recently received
a large payload of kinetic ammo and rock mines from a supply craft and was now preparing
to jump to the long range beacon inside the nebula. The Kostaii long range
beacon would take them to the nebula sector Limawi which houses a few human
colonies which the bomber was instructed to destroy with extreme prejudice.
As
the bomber was preparing the final checkup procedures before heading out, its
crew was startled by the sudden arrival of a small Kestrel class ship. Sedocho 7
being a remote beacon, the most obvious reason for a small civilian craft like
a Kestrel to jump here would be because they are either mercenaries or pirates.
Tojjick
Lepthin, the captain of the mantis bomber, immediately opened communication
channels and hailed the newcomer spacecraft. Having a rather spindly physique,
Tojjick had spent the larger duration of his military career being scoffed at
by his peers and had to mandible and claw his way up the chain of command. He
was recently promoted to captaincy and this bombing run was his first solo
mission. Therefore, he wanted it to go as smoothly as possible to make the best
impression on both his peers and his crew. You only get one chance at a first
impression.
Tojjick
spoke on the intercraft comm channel, “This is TojjicklepthinSevril of the
Sevril clan military, captain of the vessel Rogdus 4. To whoever is in charge
of the Kestrel, you are trespassing in Sevril military space. State your
identification and business. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep
your weapons depowered.”
Immediately,
the image of a thin human wearing a plain checkered shirt appeared on the
vidscreen. “Whoops! Didn’ kno’ this ‘ere beacon was all militarized an’ stuff.
Sorry officer. This here’s Cap’n Reyn of the craft Miranda, id 59-Feezy-S4. We
was jus’ passin’ through to Limawi with some cargo.” Captain Bear Lagardy gave one
of The Space-Kite’s cover informations to the bomber.
Tojjick
replied, “Miranda, eh? Alright. Slow your velocity while we check your
credentials.”
“Sure
thing, mate”, Lagardy said as he slowed The Space-Kite’s forward velocity and
slowly turned its left side towards the bomber, keeping the Artemis launcher on
the starboard hull hidden. He spoke in The Space-Kite’s intercom, “Depower the lasers
Rafiq but keep the Artemis ready.”
“Okay,
I gotta ask. Why does the captain talk in that silly accent when talking to
enemy ships?” Rafiq asked Sofia while depowering the two laser weapons. “He
must know that the universal translator doesn’t convert accents.”
Sofia
shrugged her shoulders. “Lagardy claims that he can think like a merc better
when talking in that accent. To be honest, the more I think about it, the less
sense it makes.”
Rafiq
shook his head at Sofia’s response. Instead of thinking about the captain’s odd
habits, he decided to study the weapons configuration of the bomber. The large
craft featured 4 weapons – a heavy ion cannon, a hull-ripper beam, a large-sized
missile launcher and lastly, a bomb launcher. The 4 weapons made a terrifying
combination if used intelligently.
***
“Captain
Lepthin. The identification checks out. Miranda is a mercenary vessel of
certain reputation under private ownership of a human with the name Josetty
Reyn”, the voice of the young communications officer informed Tojjick through
the intercom.
Tojjick
started speaking on the intercraft comm, “Your identification checks out
Captain Reyn. According to standard military procedures, now we are supposed to
board your vessel for …” Tojjick stopped. He had just remembered what the crew
was discussing at breakfast earlier. Some of the crew were concerned regarding
the fact that their intel on their 3 target space stations was about 5 divs
old. In a time of war that’s a significantly long time. If the Federation had
figured out that these 3 remote bases were ripe for an attack and fortified
them accordingly, the mission could easily end up going particularly badly.
Tojjick
was considering the option of hiring this fortuitously appearing mercenary craft
to scout out the stations; a quite unorthodox strategy and one which most of
his close-minded peers would surely sneer at in disgust. But Tojjick was never
one for traditions. He cleared his throat with a short cough before speaking
again. “As I was saying, now we are to board your vessel for a thorough check. But
we happen to be on a tight schedule. Anyway, your id says you’re a mercenary
vessel, correct?”
“Me
an’ the crew, we prefer the term privateer, officer. But if ya’s lookin’ for a
job to be done…” Bear baited the hook.
“Maybe.
How are your crew at recon?”
“A
scoutin’ job? That’s like free money. We jus’ hang around at a distance, let
our sensors do all the work and get paid. What’chu got in mind?”
“Space
stations. 3 of them. And we need them fast. At most within half a div. Think
you can handle it?”
“Mate,
you’s insultin’ us. Miranda ‘ere made a run through end-to-end of the Solcen
sector with goods them Feders deem illegal in less than 15 hours. Long as you
can pay, you got yo’self a deal. And lemme be honest ‘ere, 3 stations ain’t
gonna be cheap.”
“How
does 3 stationful of scraps sound for a payment?”
“Gotcha”,
Sofia whispered excitedly at Rafiq.
Bear
grinned in success. He said in the intercraft commlink, “Woah mate, you wantin’
to smash up 3 stations after we scout ‘em for ya? That there’s military action.
I don’t wanna be caught in the crossfire in this little war you got goin’ on
with the Feders.”
Tojjic
grumbled to himself, “Cowards!” But knowing that the benefits of a recon run
would be invaluable, he composed himself and spoke calmly on the comm, “Think
about it Captain Reyn. With that much scrap, you and your crew can retire for
life. Plus, The Federation will never even know you were involved. Clan’s
honour.”
Without
responding to Tojjick’s message, Bear powered the starboard side thrusters to
slowly start turning to face the bomber. He quickly spoke over the intercom,
“Rafiq, power up the lasers. Pomeroy, prepare for some evasive flying. Get
ready everyone.”
“Captain
Reyn, do you copy? Respond.” Tojjick was starting to get impatient.
Bear
pressed the button for the intercraft comm channel and spoke, “A’ight mate. We
read ya’. Jus’ one thing.”
“What?”
Tojjick enquired.
And
immediately Tojjick received his answer in the form of an Artemis warhead which
flew out of the missile launcher from the far side of the Kestrel and blazed towards
his ship.
Tojjick
was stunned at seeing the missile. He couldn’t give any orders to his crew. He
just watched as the missile came and hit dead centre on the hull of the room
containing the shield system, exploding silently and chipping away at the hull
of the large spacecraft. The in-craft camera in the shield room displayed the
shield control system sparking wildly as one layer of the ionic shield
surrounding the bomber turned off.
Seeing
his crewmember battle the electrical sparks in the shield room shook Tojjick
out of his trance. He held back the rage bubbling within him and shouted orders
to his crew.
Aboard
The Space-Kite, Sofia stood up from her chair beside Rafiq to get a better
angle at the vidscreen showing the sensor reading of the enemy craft’s layout.
She immediately noticed the patterns of doors opening and closing on the bomber
and spoke fast, “They’re ‘porting. Zekko, heads up.”
And
almost instantly the telltale sound of a teleport was heard in the storage
cabin between the life support system and weapons bay which was immediately
followed by the noise of claws scrambling against the blast doors to the
weapons room.
“Oh
that’s a bad position”, said Sofia as she calmly but rapidly unholstered her
laser pistol.
Rafiq
stared at the door with frightful eyes while fumbling to release the belt of
his holster. Sofia noticed this and said, “Fick, focus. This is my job. You’re
on weapons.”
“Uh
right”. Rafiq stopped fiddling with his holster and turned back to the weapons
control screen just in time to notice the heavy ion cannon on the bomber fire a
pulsating blob of highly ionised particles.
Lagardy
was still getting The Space-Kite fully combat-mobile. He chose to let the ion
packet hit in order to prepare to dodge the missile that would soon follow. The
ion shot hit the shield bubble surrounding the Kestrel, causing minor
electrical sparks to appear in the shield controls in front of Zekko and
disabled one layer of the ionic shield temporarily.
The
burst laser was already fully charged and as soon as the shields were disabled
by the ion shot, the hull laser became fully charged as well. Rafiq fired an
alpha strike. As the 5 laser packets flew towards the bomber, a kinetic warhead
flew out from its missile launcher heading towards The Space-Kite. Rafiq
immediately recognized the missile as a Hermes, a scaled up version of the
Artemis carrying 50% more kinetic payload.
The
leading laser packet hit the single remaining shield of the bomber. The mantis
craft executed standard evasive maneuvers to dodge the following packets of
high energy particles. It managed to evade the following 2 but the last 2 laser
shots hit squarely on the weapons bay, immediately depowering the Hermes
launcher.
Meanwhile,
the Hermes warhead was accelerating towards the Kestrel class ship. Bear quickly
spoke over the intercom, “Pomeroy, prep for starboardside max thrust. I’d
really hate to mess up our new paint job.”
Pomeroy
responded, “Confusion, captain. Painting was not…”
“Figure
of speech Poms. Just dodge.” Sofia said with annoyance in her voice as she pointed
her laser pistol towards the blast doors which were starting to make a whirring
noise from the sides.
When
the Hermes almost reached the shield layer over the right wing of The Space-Kite,
Bear quickly ordered, “Now.” Pomeroy flicked a switch and the impulse engines
on the right side of the ship spew out dark matter particles resulting in a net
leftward motion of the entire craft. The missile was unable to recalculate its
trajectory so close to the ship and flew past The Space-Kite harmlessly.
The
missile, now moving through space at a blazing speed, would run out of fuel
very soon and the moment the fuel reserve reaches zero, the k-ammo would
self-detonate, sending pieces of the missile in all directions and ensuring
that it is no longer a threat to any ship in the future.
The
scrambling of claws on the blast doors stopped. Immediately the doors slid open
to show 2 very menacing looking mantises standing at the doorframe. Sofia fired
a shot from her laser pistol while yelling in the intercom, “Zek. They’re in.”
The
heavy ion pulse having just dissipated, Zekko sent a ‘refresh’ pulse to the
shield layers and started towards the weapons room.
In
the weapons room, the leading mantis ducked the laser shot which hit one of the
tool crates in the storage room which landed on the second mantis’ foot. Rafiq
turned on his chair, his hand already heading for the holster. The leading
mantis snarled and leaped towards Sofia. Sofia hopped back a bit and the mantis
landed right in front of her with its claw poised for a strike.
Suddenly
an odd loud whoosh sound emanated from the ceiling of the weapons room. Rafiq,
Sofia and the 2 mantises all looked up at the ceiling, near the centre of which
a spheroid metallic object was materialising from within a spatial rift. All 4
pairs of eyes immediately bulged in horror at the realization of what that thing
was.
***
Instantly,
the metallic shell of the breach bomb exploded into hundreds of shrapnels, all
directed towards the portion of the ceiling straight above it. Most of the
concentrated blast of sharp metallic shrapnels punctured through that portion
of the hull of the weapons bay. A few pieces of shrapnel were reflected off the
hull back down towards the occupants of the room.
Sofia
immediately shifted her body, standing lateral to the rain of sharp blades. As
a result, she only suffered minor grazes but no direct hit from any shrapnel.
The mantis that was about to attack her tried to jump backwards to the storage
room but wasn’t fast enough. He managed to cover his face but his body’s front
side was hit with multiple shrapnels as he fell from the impact on his buddy
standing at the doorway and both of them tumbled inelegantly in the storage
room.
The
moment Rafiq saw the breach bomb he jumped out of the weapons control chair to
hide behind it but he was too slow. His entire right side was pelted with
multiple shrapnels sending him crashing on the floor beside the chair, writhing
in pain as blood started seeping out of the wounds, soaking his clothes. But
the excruciating pain was the second thing on his mind. The first was the gaping
hole in the ceiling, through which the air in the room was now flowing out into
the vacuum of space.
Since
gravlock system is mandatory on all spacecrafts, the occupants in the room were
not in any danger of getting vented out into space along with the outrushing
air. However they would soon start to asphyxiate in the lack of a breathable
atmosphere.
Suddenly,
the forward starboard side door of the weapons bay slid open and Zekko appeared
in the doorframe. And seeing the chaos in the weapons room, even his stony face
displayed an expression of shock.
Sofia
hopped over to Rafiq’s side and, quickly assessing his injuries, hoisted him up
by his left arm. Zekko fired a suppressing shot towards the storage room
wherein the 2 boarder were starting to get back on their feet. Sofia hurriedly spoke
in the intercom while walking to the door with Rafiq, “Cap, weapon’s breached
and Fick’s got multiple shraps. I’m taking him to the medbay.”
Lagardy
replied immediately, “Copy that. Zekko, get back to shields. I’m venting.”
As
Sofia helped Rafiq to the medbay, the 2 blast doors to the portside airlock
opened on their left, displaying the beautiful colours of the Kostaii nebula
while air flowed out from the room into space.
Inside
the medbay, Sofia hastily laid Rafiq on the medical bed and powered up the
medibot control system. She quickly booted up the emergency healing program and
immediately thousands of medical nanobots, that were lying dormant within both their
bodies, started repairing the damaged cells. However, since the tiny medibots
can’t remove shrapnels embedded in a patient’s body, Sofia grabbed the
de-shrapper from the wall-cabinet.
In
the mean time, Rafiq used his left arm to get his datapad out of his pant
pocket. He booted up the remote link to the weapons controls and soon, he could
control the weapons from his datapad, albeit with slight latency.
As
Sofia started to pull out the shrapnels one by one out of Rafiq’s right arm, he
fired an Artemis with his left. Tojjick noticed the Artemis and gave precise piloting
commands allowing his ship to dodge the missile effortlessly. Noticing that his
own missile was semi-repaired, Tojjick bypassed the reactor power from the hull
beam to the Hermes.
Rafiq
noticed from the in-craft camera footage that the 2 mantises were almost about
to reach the outer layer of charging conduits. He immediately shunted some of
the reactor power around, allowing the Artemis to get disabled when the 2
mantises cut the wire in the conduits. However, this gave time for both the
laser weapon to power up and Rafiq fired an alpha strike.
The
bomber tried evasive maneuvers but 3 laser shots out of 5 hit their target –
one disabling the single layer of ionic shielding allowing the other 2 shots to
go through unimpeded, one hitting the life support system, disabling it
entirely, and the other hitting the engines room, lowering the maneuverability
of the impulse engines.
Noticing
the extensive damage to Rogdus 4, Tojjick ordered his crew to repair the life
support first but he also directed 2 crewmembers to the cargo bay. He had
decided to try a new strategy, one nobody would be crazy enough to predict.
Meanwhile,
the weapons bay of The Space-Kite was slowly losing breathable atmosphere and
the 2 mantises were now banging their claws on the blast door controls to get
to the next room.
Bear
was surprised to see the large bomber fly closer to The Space-Kite – closer
than the minimum safe distance for inter-craft combat. The heavy ion on the
bomber fired again. Realizing that Tojjick had a plan, Bear chose to let the
ion shot hit, dropping the shields down to level 1 again. Suddenly, the cargo
bay ramp of Rogdus 4 opened and 2 mantises in EVA suits pushed out 3 objects,
which slowly floated towards The Space-Kite.
***
Bear
was confused. The shapes of the 3 objects were familiar to him but he couldn’t remember
where he had seen them before. He spoke on the intercom, “Hey guys. Does anyone
recognise what those 3 things are?”
Almost
instantly, Zekko shouted from the shields room, “Captain, those are rock mines.
Reverse thrust FAST!”
Bear
immediately remembered what they were. Made by rock pirates, rock
mines were a particularly nasty type of mine. They were about 4 k-ammo’s worth of kinetic payload
jammed inside a boarding drone’s chassis. If a rock mine latched onto a ship’s
hull, it would slowly burrow inside the ship and soon after, burst in a
tremendous explosion of hot metal and shrapnel. They were the bane of any ship
passing through areas prowled by rock pirates. 3 of them would definitely be
enough to crack a Kestrel wide open.
Bear
shouted on the intercom, “Reverse thrust, Pome…”
Pomeroy
cut him off, “Engine level, incapable of reverse thrust of magnitude required
to outrun rock mines. Suggestion, evasive flight maneuvers.”
“Crap!”
Bear stuttered trying to think of a solution. “Reverse anyway. It’ll buy us
some time.”
“Roger”,
Pomeroy replied and angled the impulse engines forward and gunned them. The
Space-Kite started accelerating in reverse.
“Rafiq,
can you shoot them down?” asked Captain Lagardy.
Rafiq
mentally predicted the 3 mines’ trajectory while he depowered the hull laser
and started charging up the Artemis. He replied, “I may be able to take down
the last one with a manual shot if you can give me some time for the burst
laser to charge up.”
Bear
made some mental calculations of his own. “Alright. You got it. Everyone, brace
for it!” He then took a deep breath and cracked his knuckles. “Pomeroy! Let’s show
‘em how to fly!” As he spoke, Bear placed both his palms flat on the flight
control screen.
As
the first rock mine barrelled down towards The Space-Kite, the Hermes on Rogdus
4 charged up to full and Tojjick immediately fired the missile. As was the
mantis code of conduct, there’s no kill like overkill.
However,
upon noticing the missile launcher charging up, Bear had already taken into
account the Hermes firing. In fact, a crucial part of his crazy plan depended
on Tojjick firing it. Bear turned all impulse engines backwards and slowed down
the Kestrel’s reverse velocity, rapidly coming to a standstill.
The
Hermes quickly outflied the mine farthest from the Kestrel. As the closest mine
detected proximity to a spacecraft and prepared its hooks and drills, Bear
pointed the starboard and port side engines oppositely and fired them both at
maximum thrust. The resulting torque rotated the body of the Kestrel about its
longitudinal axis while the craft started travelling forwards.
The
first mine was unable to recalculate its trajectory fast enough and passed by under
the Kestrel. But it soon turned around and came after the ship from behind.
The
Hermes outflied the second mine and came towards The Space-Kite head on, its
guidance system able to account for the ship’s screw driver maneuver. As the
missile reached the shield layer, Bear angled all thrusters downwards thereby
giving the ship a net upwards velocity. The missile passed by the underside of
the ship harmlessly and landed squarely on the mine coming behind the Kestrel.
The nigh-impossible accuracy of this maneuver stunned Tojjick aboard Rogdus 4.
He wondered aloud whether the missile hitting the mine was a fluke.
Most
of the debris from the explosion landed on the shields harmlessly. However, a single
piece hit the second mine as it neared The Space-Kite, damaging its proximity
detection system and thus disabling the hooks and drills. The mine careened
towards the shield room unguided and exploded on making contact with the hull. The
shockwave on the shield room’s hull damaged the shield generator, dropping the
shield to level 1 and sparks from the generator started a fire in the shield
room.
Zekko,
being a rock, was able to withstand temperatures up to 500K. So the fire didn’t
bother him in the slightest, only the smoke. He simply slammed his large feet
over the areas which were on fire, covering the flames and putting them out with
relative ease.
The
burst laser charged to full and Rafiq disabled the automatic targeting on it.
He took careful aim and fired it, while accounting for the datapad’s latency.
All 3 laser packets missed the last rock mine but they passed by close enough to
overheat its k-ammo payload, exploding it outside The Space-Kite’s shield layer
and therefore, making the debris harmless to the ship.
By
this time, the 2 half-asphyxiated mantis boarders had managed to manually
override the blast door controls in the almost-vacuum weapons bay. The blast
doors led them out from the almost-vacuum weapons bay into the room next to the
portside airlock. However, they found, to their horror, that the doors to the
airlock and the outer blast doors in said airlock were all fully open to space.
And the room that they were now in was entirely devoid of any atmosphere.
The
2 of them scrambled to get the remote control pad for the teleporter system out
of their pocket as they both collapsed on the floor. In their final moments of
consciousness, they pressed the return button on the control pad, wishing they
had the foresight of doing it earlier. By the time their bodies materialised
inside Rogdus 4’s teleporter room, they were both dead.
As
soon as the 2 boarders teleported out, Captain Lagardy closed all external
doors and opened all internal ones, except the weapons room, to speedily
balance the atmosphere within the ship so the hull breach in the weapons room can
be repaired in relative safety.
***
Due
to the forward velocity of The Space-Kite, the ship was now quite close to the
bomber – closer than the safe combat distance. But this time, it was the
Kestrel’s turn. Rafiq disabled auto-targeting on the Artemis and fired the missile
manually. Tojjick noticed the incoming warhead and, to account for his weakened
engines from the prior attack, ordered his ship to move such that the Artemis
hits a non-essential part of the hull and not on any vital systems.
But
Rafiq didn’t aim for any system. And so, despite the bomber’s movements, the Artemis
was able to land on its intended target, the still-open ramp of the cargo bay.
The explosion from the Artemis broke off the hinges on one side of the ramp.
The two mantis crewmembers in spacesuits were further back in the room and
remained unharmed. However, the shockwave from the blast activated one of the
rock mines that were kept near the top of the ramp for a future attack.
The
hooks and drills on the rock mine immediately activated and it clamped down on
the floor of the cargo bay. The two mantis crew rushed towards the mine to
disable it. But before they could even touch it, the mine exploded, tearing off
an entire section of the hull on the floor of the cargo bay and sending violent
shockwaves through the hull of the large bomber. Crates of cargo flew out from
the bomber. Visible amongst them was a mangled EVA suit which until very
recently had a live crew inside. The wriggling body of the other crewmember, still
alive in his spacesuit, screamed for help as he floated farther and farther
away from the bomber.
By
this time, Sofia had managed to fully de-shrap Rafiq’s right arm. Now there
were just 3 shrapnels remaining which were embedded in his right leg. Rafiq
grabbed hold of the de-shrapper from Sofia in his now-healed right arm and told
her, “I got this. You go take care of the weapons breach.”
“Are
you sure?” Sofia asked, unconvinced that the greenie could de-shrap himself
effectively.
“I
just saw you do it. Go already.” Rafiq insisted.
Sofia
nodded and ran out the now open door.
“Pomeroy,
go help Sofia with the breach. We need all weapons online, fast.” Bear spoke on
the intercom while opening all doors to the weapons bay. Air rushed from the
nearby rooms out the hull breach in the weapons room but the outrushing air
provided a semi-breathable atmosphere for Sofia and Pomeroy to work in.
In
the weapons bay, Sofia took a large breath and grabbed one of the compressed
carbolinum sheets that were kept in every room for sealing breaches while
Pomeroy entered the room and picked up the hull repair gel sprayer. Sofia held
the sheet up to the hole in the ceiling, covering it and stopping the outflow
of air while Pomeroy started spraying the repair gel around its edges. The gel
activated the nanofibres in the carbolinum and caused them to expand and latch
on to the broken nanofibers in the carbolinum hull around the breach hole. The
nanofibers bonded with each other quite quickly, thereby repairing the hull.
Rafiq
used the de-shrapper to carefully remove the metal pieces from his leg, all the
while keeping an eye on his datapad.
The
breach bomb on Rogdus 4 fired again. This time, however, Bear made the side
thrusters give a sudden downward thrust which messed up the telemetry of the
bomb and it materialized outside and above the body of the Kestrel, exploding
harmlessly as the metal shrapnels were intercepted by the ionic shield.
“Zekko
reporting. The fire’s out but shields are down to level 1. Repairing”, Zekko gave
a sitrep as he opened up the cover of the shield generator to fix the damage
caused by the fire.
“You
killed 4 of my crew”, came a shout from the universal translator. Tojjick was
furious. “You’re dead. You hear me, merc meatbags? You’re all dead!”
Immediately
the bomb launcher on Rogdus 4 was depowered and the hull ripper beam started
charging up.
Rafiq
fired an Artemis quickly followed by a volley from the burst laser. Unfortunately,
despite its weakened engines, Tojjick was able to effectively dodge the missile
about to hit the shield room. And by the time the burst laser shots reached the
bomber, the shield generator was repaired to full and the second layer shield
was already activated. The first 2 laser packets did manage to hit the shields,
temporarily disabling both layers but the third one missed.
Rafiq
grumbled and depowered the Artemis. He wasn’t going to waste as much k-ammo as
in his first battle. So he repowered the hull laser.
The
missile launcher on the bomber shot another Hermes. Without Pomeroy at the
engine room performing minor angular adjustments of the impulse thrusters, Lagardy
used a standard dodging maneuver to bypass the missile. This move, however, allowed
the weapons controller aboard Rogdus 4 track The Space-Kite’s telemetry for the
next few seconds, meaning that it was wide open for the next attack, which came
immediately in the form of a pulsating blob of ion from the heavy ion cannon.
Zekko
was still operating on the shields so the heavy ion packet hit the single layer
of shield, disabling it and causing some threatening-looking, but quite harmless,
sparks in the shield generator, right in Zekko’s face.
Without
any shields, The Space-Kite was fully exposed to the hull beam which was still
charging. Rafiq yelled in the intercom, “Pomeroy! Beam’s coming! We need
shields!” as he yanked out the last shrapnel from his leg and swore at his
datapad seeing that the hull laser wasn’t yet fully charged.
In
the weapons room, the breach was nearly sealed with a few small openings still
remaining. Pomeroy heard Rafiq over the intercom and started, “Importance of
shiel…” Sofia snatched the gel sprayer from Pomeroy and said, “I can calculate
too. Go!”
Pomeroy
quickly arrived in the shield room and crouched down beside Zekko and, with a
short glance, analyzed the damage in the shield generator. He extended his hands
which immediately formed crude tendrils which slithered their way to the
damaged regions and the nanomachines started repairing them.
But
before the repair was complete, the hull beam fired. The searing red hot photonic
stream struck the Kestrel, passing over the empty room behind the cockpit, the
sensor room and the door control room.
Rafiq
winced at the damage while hopping down from the medical bed. He quickly fired
his finally-ready alpha strike. The 5 laser packets flew threateningly towards
the large bomber. But Tojjick was ready for it. He used Bear’s own strategy and
angled his impulse engines to provide Rogdus 4 a spin. Although the 2 leading
lasers hit the shields getting Rafiq’s hopes up, the spin allowed the large
craft to dodge the rest of the laser shots.
Rafiq
gave out a frustrating sigh and quickly put the de-shrapper in the cabinet, turned
off the medibot control system and ran back to the weapons room. He entered the
room to see Sofia drop the repair gel on her stool, having completed the hull
repair. Rafiq quickly grabbed some spare wiring and started reconnecting the
outer charging conduit in the weapons system.
Sofia
looked at the dark outline of The Space-Kite and Rogdus 4 on Rafiq’s datapad –
a result of their disabled sensors. But she was thinking of something else.
“Captain?”
“What
is it Sofia?”
“They’re
down 4 crew.”
“I
noticed. Are you sure you can do it?”
“Zekko?”
Zekko
and Pomeroy were still repairing the shield generator. But knowing that an
engi’s nanomachine tendrils can repair faster than he ever could, Zekko stood
up and punched his palm decisively. “Let’s do it.”
Bear
nodded. “Alright. Pomeroy, hurry back to engines. I’m shunting some power to the
teleporter.”
Rafiq
looked up at Sofia in shock, mid-repair. For a human, teleporting inside a
mantis ship was nigh-suicidal. He could barely whisper out, “Good luck Sof.”
Sofia
nodded silently and headed out to the teleporter room. Zekko soon entered the
weapons room and followed her out, giving Rafiq a little salute.
Rafiq
quickly finished repairing and sat on the weapons control chair just in time to
see both the heavy ion and the Hermes launcher on Rogdus 4 fire simultaneously.
Bear
gritted his teeth. “Pommy? Are you in engines yet?”
“Not
yet captain”, Pomeroy replied as he hurriedly reattached the cover to the
shield generator.
Bear
cringed. He couldn’t dodge both attacks without Pomeroy’s minute adjustments.
And to top it off, the second layer of shields wasn’t ready yet and the hull
beam on Rogdus 4 was fully charged for another lase as soon as the ion hits.
His mind raced for a solution and came up with the only possible one.
“Alright.
Tactical damage it is. Everyone, brace again.” Bear spoke over the intercom and
swerved The Space-Kite sideways. The ion pulse missed its target but the Hermes
corrected its telemetry and slammed straight on the large room beside the
starboard airlock and started a fire.
Bear
gave an audible whew as he vented the room. Despite the hull integrity of The
Space-Kite dropping to 30%, Bear was glad that he was able to prevent the
Hermes from hitting a system room.
“All
right. We’re all set”, Sofia said from the teleporter room.
“Gotcha”,
replied Rafiq and fired an alpha strike for the bomber’s medbay. The first 2
burst laser packets struck the shields but the third missed. The leading hull
laser also missed and just as Rafiq was about to punch the controls, the last
hull laser struck home on the medbay.
“Yes!
Their medbay’s down!” Rafiq was elated.
“Grundi!
Sunn! Don’t either of you dare die!”, Bear ordered.
With
a short salute, Sofia pressed the depart button on the crew teleporter and it noisily
created a spatial rift surrounding her and Zekko which immediately transported
them to the broken medbay on Rogdus 4.
***
Sofia
and Zekko appeared in the large medical bay to find the bodies of the 2
mantises who boarded The Space-Kite just a few minutes ago and a third mantis,
wounded but alive, clawing feverishly at the broken medibot control system
trying to repair the damage from the laser strike. The mantis immediately
turned around upon seeing the rift appear and fired a shot from her laser
pistol towards the sudden boarding party. Sofia quickly ducked the shot and
returned fire from her own pistol with Zekko following suit.
In
the bomber’s cockpit, Tojjick was caught completely unawares by the 2 boarders.
He never imagined that a human mercenary crew can have the guts to board a
mantis military ship. He’d have considered the boarders suicidal if 4 of his
crew weren’t already killed by said mercenary craft’s attacks.
While
the rest of Tojjick’s crew scrambled towards the medbay to repel the boarders,
Rafiq fired an Artemis which struck the shields room of Rogdus 4. Tojjick
retaliated with an ion shot followed soon after by a Hermes. The ion landed on
The Space-Kite’s shield as Lagardy and Pomeroy dodged the large missile.
In
the medbay, Sofia and Zekko were trading shots from their laser pistols with
the wounded mantis and almost had her pinned down when 2 mantises entered the
medbay. The newcomers deftly maneuvered over the overturned medical bed behind
which Zekko and Sofia took cover and landed right in front of them.
Rafiq
saw what was happening on his vidscreen and spoke on the crew-comm channel,
“Guys! Get out of the medbay. I got this.”
Sofia
quickly ducked a slashing strike from the mantis in front of her at kicked at
his legs. As the mantis stumbled back, she yelled to Zekko, “You heard ‘im.
Let’s run in the doors.”
Zekko
palm-slammed the mantis he was engaged with and quickly followed in Sofia’s
heels out of the medbay and into the room beside it housing the level one doors
system.
As
soon as the 2 of them were out of the medbay, Rafiq fired an alpha strike. Of
the leading 3 shots from the burst laser, 2 missed but 1 managed to hit the
single remaining layer of shields of the bomber, allowing both the hull laser
packets to strike the medbay, causing a breach in one of its walls.
Sofia
and Zekko re-entered the medbay to find the wounded mantis lying dead near the
breach hole. The other 2 mantises, hurt from the shrapnel from the breach and
broken machinery, were leaning on the overturned medical bed. Sofia and Zekko
quickly moved in on them and choked them until they both passed out.
Sofia
said to Rafiq, “Thanks for that, Fick. Just an FYI, the hull integrity over
here is at 25% so watch your shots, okay?”
Rafiq
replied, “Roger. Holding fire till you 2 give… wait a sec! Door movement from
both cockpit and weapons. Heads up!”
Sofia
and Zekko quickly moved out of the medbay into the large room next to it, just
in time to see a burly mantis coming through the door on the other side
connecting to the weapons room. The two of them sprinted across the length of
the room with Zekko pushing the leaping mantis aside and ran straight into the
weapons control room.
The
mantis quickly followed on their heels and opened fire on them from his laser
pistol which hit Zekko squarely on his back. Zekko lost his balance from the
strike but managed to grab the weapons control chair and regain his balance
while Sofia returned fire. The mantis ducked behind a stack of carbolinum
sheets while the door opened and Tojjick entered the weapons room, his antennae
standing straight in fury.
Lagardy
recognised Tojjick on the live footage from the crew teleporter’s biometric
scanner. He quickly spoke over the crew-comm, “Hey you two! The thin one’s
Tojjick. Try and see if you can catch him alive.”
Zekko
replied while firing a laser shot at the mantis captain, “Easier said than
done, cap’n.”
“Hey
Rafiq,” Bear continued. “If their captain is fighting that means…”
“The
cockpit’s probably unmanned!” Rafiq almost jumped out of his chair at the
realization. “Sofia! Zekko! Out of the weapons room, NOW!”
“C’mon
Sofia”, Zekko called as he opened the door leading out on their side of the
weapons room into the next room which housed the life support system. Sofia
dived from her position behind the weapons control chair and slid across the
floor. Zekko entered the room and pulled her inside and slammed the door shut.
Almost
instantly, an Artemis rocketed out of the missile launcher on The Space-Kite
and smashed heavily on the weapons chamber of Rogdus 4, disabling the Hermes
and causing enough electrical sparks in the weapons control that a fire erupted
in the chamber.
Sofia
and Zekko immediately entered the room while the two mantis occupants were
still dazed from this attack. Zekko jumped over the flames and quickly grabbed
hold of the larger mantis from the back with his big stony hands. Tojjick
recovered faster than his weapons controller and, upon noticing the situation,
quickly retreated out of the room. Sofia followed after Tojjick while Zekko
tried to choke the squirming mantis senseless.
The
muscular mantis was proving to be rather difficult to hold on to for Zekko. Instead
of trying to overpower the mantis, Zekko simply strolled quickly into the fire
with his prisoner and just stood there amidst the flames as the mantis started
coughing, both from the stony fists that were squeezing his throat and the
smoke from the fire.
Tojjick
ran back to the cockpit and then down a hatch to a corridor below. He ran down
the corridor a little ways and entered the escape pod bay at the end. He quickly
started to prepare an escape pod.
Tojjick
still couldn’t believe how poorly the battle went. Despite piloting a heavily
armed bomber against a puny Kestrel, 5 of his 8 crew was killed, 2 lay
unconscious and asphyxiating in the vented medbay and the last one was being
choked by a rock boarder inside a burning room. Retreat was the only sensible option.
Just
as soon as the escape pod came online, Sofia entered the pod bay. She quickly
analyzed the scenario and flicked the overcharge switch on her laser pistol. In
the time it took for Tojjick to turn his face around to see the human, Sofia was
already lining up her pistol.
She
fired. Not at the fleeing mantis, but at the escape pod controls.
The
pistol burst fired 3 laser packets, 2 of which hit the escape pod controls,
immediately disabling the charged pod. Tojjick’s compound eyes bulged as he
realized that he was now stranded. He snarled and leapt for Sofia before she
could even blink.
Tojjick
landed on Sofia heavily, pinning her down on the floor with his 4 legs and
raised his claw for a lethal strike on her throat. She whacked the mantis
captain’s waist hard with the pistol causing Tojjick to flinch. She wriggled
out from under his feet, jumped up and swung her right leg for a roundhouse
kick but Tojjick slashed her foot away, creating a deep gash from which blood
spurted out.
Pain
shot through her leg as she struggled to keep balance. But Tojjick wasn’t
finished. He slammed Sofia with his body into the door to the pod bay. Her
pistol went flying while Tojjick followed up with a double kick into her lower
abdomen. Sofia crumbled down to the floor, writhing in pain, as Tojjick spread
both his claws wide, getting ready to behead her.
***
All
three occupants of the Kestrel saw the live footage.
Rafiq
panicked, “Oh no! Port her back!”
Pomeroy
responded, “Negative. Location of Sofia Grundi, lower deck, outside crew
teleporter range.”
Bear
yelled, “Sunn? Where the hell are you?”
“Dropping
down the hatch. ETA 4 seconds.”, Zekko replied as he jumped down the hatch and
landed on the corridor below with a loud crash.
Rafiq
cried out, “That won’t be enough. Sofia!”
***
Her
crewmates’ screams on the comm snapped Sofia out of her pain-induced daze. Clenching
her teeth, she looked up and saw what the mantis was about to do and she did
the only thing her body could. She slipped down on the floor under Tojjick’s
legs as his claws struck each other midair, barely centimeters above her head.
Still
down on the floor, Sofia kicked Tojjick in the back with her left foot. Tojjick
tumbled forwards but used his two forward legs to regain balance and turned
around swiftly. Sofia rolled on her side trying to get away from Tojjick but he
grabbed both her legs. Sofia screamed in pain as Tojjick yanked her back and
slammed a foot hard on her left knee.
Tojjick
spoke, while he raised a claw to strike, “You’re not getting away from this,
human. I’m not going down alone.”
Sofia
realized that Tojjick was about to do the same thing that female mantis did to
Sean, stab straight through the heart. Her mind raced to find a solution.
Tojjick gave a menacing snarl and delivered the blow.
Sofia
reached out with her right arm and grabbed the incoming claw and pulled hard, redirecting
the blow to the right side of her body, near the armpit, while at the same time
lowering Tojjick’s body closer to her. In a quick motion, she reached out with
her left arm and unholstered Tojjick’s laser pistol from his belt – although
she couldn’t fire the pistol since they were all coded to their users’ DNA, it
certainly wasn’t useless – and smashed it hard on his head.
Sofia
screamed and smashed Tojjick’s head with the pistol again. Blue blood oozed out
of the wound. Tojjick backed his head outside of Sofia’s arm’s range and drew
his free arm backwards for another stab but something caught his arm from behind.
He turned his head just in time to see Zekko’s stony fist heading towards his
face.
Tojjick’s
unconscious body crumpled down on the floor like a rag.
***
“Whew!”
Sofia sighed heavily as she threw Tojjick’s pistol away. “You really should jog
more often, you know that?”
“Sorry,”
Zekko apologized. “That fat jurliko put up more of a fight than I’d thought. C’mon,
let’s get you above deck so you can port back. Can you stand up?”
Sofia
tried to stand but grunted from the pain. “Don’t think so. My legs are hurting
like hell. I got no feeling in my right arm and I’m pretty sure my kidneys are
haemorrhaging from that bugface’s double kick. Oh man, I’m dead tired.”
“Just
wait till we get you to the medbay before you fall asleep, okay?” Bear spoke
over the intercom, “Rafiq, get the stretcher from the medbay to the teleporter.
Pomeroy, prep the brig. Zekko, get Sofia upstairs first. Then go get Tojjick
before he wakes up.”
Zekko
lifted up Sofia as gently as he could while she started to fall back in a daze
again. He turned around and then slammed one of his legs on all four of
Tojjick’s.
“Sunn!
What gives? Don’t kill him! Jeez!” Bear was frantic.
“Don’t
worry captain. That was just payback for hurting Sofia.”
***
Sofia
appeared through the spatial rift in The Space-Kite’s teleporter room to see
Rafiq and Bear waiting for her. They lifted her on the stretcher and carried
her to the medbay.
As
the medibots inside her body started to heal her, Sofia gave a weak smile and
said, “What a day, eh Fick? Less than quarter of an hour ago, I was pulling
shrapnels out of you and now…”
Bear
spoke, “Yep, the tables turn very quickly in combat. Get used to that, Rafiq. And
you, Grundi, shut up and go to sleep.”
Zekko’s
voice came over the inter-craft comm, “Hey captain, good news. We got one more
prisoner. I was gathering up all the bodies and found one of the dudes that we
choked out cold in the medbay, lying in the doors’ room. Looks like he actually
managed to wake up and crawl into this room before passing out again.”
“Brilliant!
Let’s get him and Tojjick to the brig. Then we’ll go see what we can find on
their ship.”
Footnote:
Div:
Standardized unit of time used in space. 400 divs = 1 styear.
De-shrapper:
Electromagnetic forceps for removing shrapnels by magnetic and or electrostatic
attraction (depending on the type of shrapnel). The electromagnetic field also
helps to temporarily halt nervous signals near the shrapnel, thereby removing
any sense of pain from the area.
EVA
suit: Extra Vehicular Activity suit (i.e. spacesuit)
Carbolinum:
Hull material invented by the slugs. Despite being structurally weaker than the
previously-used titanium alloys, carbolinum is used almost universally for all
spacecraft hull due to its fibrous structure which can be repaired quickly and
on the fly by even the most naive civilian, by using a special repair gel also
invented by the slugs. As an added bonus, it is very thermally resistive to
re-entry heating. Unfortunately, its chemical bonds react with the high
magnetic field disturbance of a CME (coronal mass ejection) from a stellar
flare resulting in random hotspots around the hull of a spacecraft which can sometimes
start fires inside the craft.
Laser
pistols work by firing a pulse of high energy photons which upon hitting their
target causes focal radiation burn to the skin and damage to nerves and tissues
underneath, making them a very effective sidearm for both lethal and non-lethal
attacks. For example, a few well placed shots on the brain are enough to kill
the target.
Biometric
scanner: A secondary feature of a crew teleporter system – a scanner that tracks
the biometric signals of boarders on their target ship in case the main sensor
subsystem of the boarding ship is unavailable.
The
overcharge function on a laser pistol is a built in as a last resort option. It
fully drains the pistol’s fuel cell to burst fire 3 shots in quick succession,
rather than the normal single laser shot. Following an overcharge shot, the
pistol is required to be recharged at charging terminal so the shooter is left
with a useless firearm.
Jurliko:
Rock slang for mantis. Means ‘four legs’.
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