Also, keep in mind, the samples won't be contiguous from now on. There's a gap between #2 and #3 here, and this pattern will continue. But you'll at least get an idea of where I'm going with the book.
“Clear
all moorings, and ahead one quarter thrusters.” He couldn’t hear or feel the
connections to the drydocks disengage, but he felt a subtle vibration in the
floor and his chair as the gravitic drives powered up and began to push the Bastille forward. The other five ships
did the same, and, within moments, they were clear and sailing into space.
Their speeds increased as they cleared collision hazards, and the fleet began
to move into formation, staying several dozen kilometers apart from each other.
“Time
to contact?” du Saniel asked.
“Approximately
fifteen minutes, sir,” Lieutenant Biggs reported. du Saniel studied the
readouts, compiling strategies in his head, for several minutes. As they neared
the furthest edges of weapons range, he stood and walked into an open space
several meters wide, ringed in standing consoles. Beyond the windows, he could
see the hull of the Constitution-class
carrier stretch ahead, like a blunt dagger protruding into the black body of
space.
Slipping on another pair of control
gloves, he activated the system, and the view of space became obscured as he
was surrounded by holographic representations of all nearby objects. The ships
of his battlegroup floated by as a half-dozen greenish shapes, while the bloody
red of the Great Enemy ships approached. All this floated between the blue
spheres representing Belladrix and Terranis. Small bits of information floated
around each object, giving information such as speed, direction of travel, and
general status.
“Standby all weapons, prepare to
fire on my command. All starwings and All-Terrain Suits stand ready to launch.”
He heard footsteps approach, and didn’t need to look to know it was Captain
Legun, his executive officer.
“Once more, eh dear friends?”
Renoir manipulated the holograms around him to observe the disposition of his
ships.
“So it would seem.” he heard Legun
respond. “We have even numbers, but we are likely outgunned, and it will take
all our cunning-“
“All MY cunning,” du Saniel
interrupted. Legun continued as if nothing had been said.
“-To have any hope of wearing them
down enough they withdraw, let alone outright defeat them.”
“We will defeat them, Gerros, it’s
just a matter of what it will cost us.”
“Hopefully not too much. Humanity’s
numbers are depleted enough as they are.” du Saniel turned to look at Legun.
“You think I don’t know that? I’ve
seen what those demons are capable of. They will not stop until every last
sentient being in the galaxy is either dead or enslaved to their will. I will
NOT be defeated now, after all I’ve done to fight against them and everything
I’ve done for this system.” Though they were speaking quietly, he was sure at
least some bits of their conversation was reaching the junior officers on the
bridge. He leaned in a little more and lowered his voice further.
“Have no fear, my friend. I will
see us through this.”
Legun’s face was its usual
impassivity, and his violet eyes reflected the light of the holograms. “Of
course. I believe in you, as always. I didn’t mean to imply that was in doubt,
I simply wanted to reiterate the precariousness of our situation. If we are not
cautious enough, every human in this system will be dead by the week’s end.”
“No pressure, then,” Renoir said
with only a hint of humor. He made to speak further, but was shook from his
spot as something impacted the ship. Through the windows outside, the shields
of the ship flared to life for a moment as they absorbed the impact, their glow
filling the bridge.
“Report!” du Saniel yelled, turning
back to fore.
“Impact from ahead. The enemy
destroyers are firing their long-range guns at us!”
Legun’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“I thought we were still outside their maximum range.”
“Like I said in the briefing,” du
Saniel replied, “sometimes they have surprises. Increase thrust to 110% of
maximum and begin firing railguns and flak screens! I don’t care if we can hit
them, just try to throw off their aim!” A glance to starboard showed the Brattain’s shields flaring as the Nautilus-class cruiser took a hit. As
the shield-flare faded, the other ship continued on undeterred, though its
shield induction coils were glowing red-hot from the strain of the hit.
The Great Enemy ships were little
more than particularly bright stars in the sky. The distance between them could
still be measured in terms of the entire diameter of Terranis or more, though
that was quickly changing as the Alliance ships powered forward at dozens of
kilometers a second. A few moments later, the ship gave short shakes as the
powerful rainguns mounted along the hull flashed to life and manipulated
gravity itself to hurl human-sized slugs of tungsten at half the speed of light
towards the Great Enemy ships. Meanwhile, smaller, blunt-nosed turrets tracked
back and forth, vomiting hundreds of explosives laced with exotic particles
into the space before the ship, trying to cause any incoming attacks to explode
before hitting the shields. A couple were caught, obscuring the ship in blooms
of explosions, but otherwise leaving it unharmed. Though the view from the
windows was blocked, the ship was otherwise unimpeded in its view of the
battlefield.
du Saniel manipulated the
holograms, studying the status of the ships and relative positions of the
combatants as the gap closed. He didn’t react as dozens, then hundreds, of tiny
red dots began to swarm out of the enemy capital ship. Many floated around the
ships like flies around a corpse, but waves of others began to make for the
Alliance ships.
“Deploy starwings and ATS groups!
Interceptors and Numbergs in defensive formation. I want our bomber wings and
Janissaries ready to launch and attack once we close to within ten thousand
kilometers.” Officers scrambled to relay his orders.
“You’re attacking with the fighters
and suits after all?” Legun asked.
“I need to make sure that Humbaba dies on the first pass. It’ll
likely cost a large swathe of our fighters and suits, I know, but the effect on
the enemy will balance that out. As long as we can maintain our flak batteries,
we should be able to repel most of their fighter attacks.” For an instant,
Renoir considered also deploying the contents of hangar bay 47, but dismissed
it for now.
“What about boarding ships? You
know the suits are best-suited to destroying them.”
Renoir
was silent for a second. “I’m not worried about those. If they become a threat,
I’ll deal with them.”
Silence and darkness. He sat
suspended in his flight harness, half-drifting in a meditative state. The
engines of his craft were kept at little more than an idle, as if it was
meditating like him. To an outside observer, both might have seemed to be
coiled, bristling with pent-up energy, waiting to strike.
Through the neural link with his
craft, he was fed a trickle of data from the ship around him. They were nearing
the enemy. Guns were already blazing. Soon the word to strike would come, and
both he and his craft would awaken and once more streak into battle amidst a
blazing tail of fire.
Soon.
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