Frozen Soul, and other works: Chapter 185

(BSN Jester, Interstellar Space)

Three on two was not exactly great odds. Too much could happen in a fight like that. It was far too close to a fair fight. And if there was one thing that was absolute doctrine in the Black Star Navy it was that fair fights should be avoided whenever possible.

Jester and Isis announced their arrival with a blast from their main guns, focusing fire on the closest of the three X’thari scouts. The superdreadnought-level weapons combining to smash the scout vessel’s shields, likely doing some pretty severe damage to the ship itself. Questions about how much damage they did were rendered moot a second later, when one of Jester’s ship-killer missiles hit the crippled scout straight in their engines. Power on the scout ship died a half-second before the ship exploded, likely caused by reactor damage.

Two on two was still far too close to a ‘fair fight’ for Simimar’s liking, however. “All right, one down, two more to go. Isis, you have lead on this one. Jester will follow you in.”

Switching from the ship-to-ship frequency to internal coms, he said, “Meriel, keep a sharp eye on those sensors. I don’t want one of those bastards looping around to try and take us from behind. Susan, get us in formation with Isis, and follow their lead. We need to kill these bastards fast. Aiduin, we’re probably going to start stressing the shields in a second. Give me what you can get. Kitten, work with Fagan on Isis. I want these X’thari out of my sky.”

SexKitten purred happily. “Will do, Captain.” Simimar didn’t need to look over at her to know that she had her ‘game face’ on. She might play around a bit (more like constantly) normally, but now it was time to work. And if there was one thing about SexKitten that was one hundred percent pure Felisan, despite her being a Nomad, it was that she never messed around when the hunt was on.

With that, Simimar tried to get that freighter on the coms. “Alebeard Shipping Vessel True Brew, this is Black Star Navy Jester. Damage report. Can you clear the engagement zone?”

“True Brew to Jester. Shields are at 5% and climbing on secondary generators. Currently on backup power. Will need to make repairs before engaging FTL.”

“Jester copies, True Brew. Maintain best course and speed away from engagement area. We’ll keep the X’thari off your backs.”

Gritting his teeth, he switched to Isis’s frequency. “Victor, civvie freighter unable to disengage. Wounded duck scenario. We need to keep the raiders focused on us.”

Isis’s Captain grunted. “Fair enough. Bogey’s Two and Three are turning to intercept us. We’ll hold their attention, don’t you worry.”

“Take the lead on Three, he’s closest. We’ll follow you in, and watch your back.”

“Wilco.”

Simimar turned his attention back to his navigational plot and the sensor logs. Two on two was a fair fight, but X’thari raiders and Black Star gunboats didn’t stack up evenly. They had their strengths and weaknesses. The X’thari were light, nimble craft that had a small (but significant) advantage in speed, especially on single vectors. The gunboats had a tighter turn radius, and were built strong enough to take the extra stress of flipping a vertical 180 degrees, firing back along their flight path. Their main weapons were stronger and had a longer range than the X’thari grav-lances, but the lances were on turrets instead of spinal mounts, meaning the X’thari didn’t have to be facing straight at their prey to shoot it. Of course, the gunboats did have the advantage of shields and missile loads, and their point defense could still hurt a X’thari scout if they didn’t have shields up.

Everyone who served on a Black Star gunboat got cross-trained. You learned enough of the other person’s job so that if shit went down, and they were either incapacitated, off the ship, or whatever, you could work the problem. Didn’t have to be a master at it, but you did have to know how to sing a few bars, in a pinch.

Susan Glass, their human pilot, had slipped into her seat even before the first shot was fired, and she was following Isis’s pilot in a twisting ark that aimed to cut off the X’thari the computer had named Bogey Three. Simimar didn’t bother giving her orders, instead, he was keeping track of the battlefield, and listening to the communications channels, so they could coordinate with Isis. Meriel Carfiel, their knelfi backup mechanic was also their primary medic, but until people or machines needed fixing, she was sitting at a console, keeping sharp track of the sensors, making sure that Bogey Two didn’t get in behind them, or make a run on the freighter. Breaking off on an attack run towards the freighter would be a very un-X’thari thing to do, when there was stronger prey around, that wasn’t crippled, but the bugs were clever, and weren’t above leading an enemy into a trap.

Which is also why Aiduin Rolana, their knelfi Engineer, was already working to keep this gunboat running smoothly while the weapons were flying. The Nomads had a lovely saying about the ‘Demon God’ Murphy, and how everything that can go wrong eventually will go wrong. Which is why they had five crewmembers on a ship that could be easily run by three, maybe even two. Redundancy wasn’t a bad thing, when it came to military hardware.

This battle would be over soon enough. Whatever else the X’thari were, they weren’t stupid. The destruction of their first scout ship caused them to break off their attack on the True Brew. Bogey Three was trying to turn, and get out from under their guns, and was going in three dimensions to try and make up for their inferior turn radius. Bogey Two, on the other hand, was looping back, looking to…

Meriel spotted it. “Captain! Bogey Two maneuvering to try and get on our six!”

Simimar grit his teeth. “Transferring power to rear shields! Susan, keep us masking Isis. Let them worry about Three. SexKitten, I want a missile headed Two’s way, ASAP! Give them something to think about besides shooting us full of holes. Aiduin, I need all the shield power you can give me!”

“Missile away!”

The gunboat rocked as the X’thari grav-lance raked their shields, jerking everyone up short by their safety harnesses. Simimar grimaced as he saw the numbers. Forty-five percent reduction in field strength from that single hit, and that was after they’d been reinforced! Damn, but those grav-lances packed a punch.

Bogey Two rolled into a corkscrew spiral to evade the missile, doing its best to keep us in its sights, while denying us an easy targeting solution. And if they broke to engage, the X’thari would have a free shot at Isis. It wouldn’t take them long to break through her shields, and then the odds would be worse.

“Isis, Jester. These Xithies are getting on my nerves. You feel like a bit of a game with them?”

“Jester, Isis. Now that you mention it, this is starting to annoy me a little bit. Perhaps we should try and clear the air? Surprise Party?”

“Affirmative. Call the shot.”

“Surprise Party in three… two… one… BREAK!”

The X’thari were hunters. They may have adapted well to the concepts of space combat, but they were not soldiers. They were hunters and they fought and flew like hunters, preferring to stalk and entrap their prey. Black Stars were military, pure and simple.

Surprise Party was one of the maneuvers that all Black Star Navy pilots trained in as part of their formation training. On command, Isis abruptly angled up and cut all thrust. Jester burst through the space her sister had just been in, boosting speed and rebalancing her shields, a brace of missiles flying from her forward tubes as her main gun fired at Bogey Three. They all missed, but that was only a minor disappointment. The main thing was keeping that scout’s head down. Bogey Two couldn’t break off in time to target Isis, and flew right past the gunboat, which quickly reengaged thrust as it angled down, bringing her main gun in line with two’s stern. Now, it was two on one, and both ships were pursuing Three once more.

Then the presence of the tarpit was gone, along with the last X’thari scout. Simimar breathed out a sigh of relief. “Isis, Jester. Bogey Three has quit the area. No sense chasing them into whatever defenses they have at their base. Form up on True Brew. We’ll cover her until she is able to go to warp.”

“Copy Jester. Forming up on Slowby McSlowface.”

Simimar chuckled at the ancient joke, and looked around. “Meriel, Aiduin, run diagnostics, make sure nothing worked loose when we got our bell rung. Susan, take us towards the freighter. SexKitten, keep an eye out for that last ship, in case they get their nerve back.”

While the crew got to their tasks, Simimar logged the last course and speed of the X’thari raider, and included it in the incident report he was writing. Switching frequencies, he transmitted, “True Brew, Jester. Two X’thari scouts destroyed, one running. Isis and Jester will remain on station until you are underway. Suggest expediting warp repairs, in case they come back.”

“Brew copies, Jester. And thanks for that.”

“Just doing our job, Brew. We’ll let you get back to your repairs. Jester, out.”

(Main Bridge, BSN Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, Cadra Primaris)

Slave-Captain Ara Virstina was at ease. At least, that was what her crew saw of her. There were multiple battles going on, according to her reports, but none of them affected her deployment orders. The attacks had all been launched by X’thari raiders, all in light scout craft, fighting in Thirds. Since even if her ships left at this moment, they would be hours or days late by the time they got to even one of the battle sites, all she could do about them was collate data, and prepare her report for the Master.

So far, the attacks had been typical commerce raider actions. The ‘what’ and the ‘how’ were normal, the only oddities were the ‘who’ and the ‘why’. X’thari didn’t typically go shooting up transports in interstellar space. That wasn’t their thing. The fact that they were dealing with multiple X’thari incursions throughout the sector also meant that this was likely more than a simple skirmish.

At least the battles were going well. So far, they hadn’t lost any ships, primarily because they were launching surprise attacks. Like the X’thari, Black Star’s screening elements were ambush predators at heart. Once the X’thari committed to an attack on one of the bait freighters, the Black Stars would pounce. Sure, they hadn’t gotten away with those victories free and clear. Several gunboats were damaged, a couple critically, and Wisteria had suffered a grav-lance hit when she put her hull between a raider and a freighter, sending her on emergency power temporarily. Fortunately, they hadn’t lost any of the ships.

Still, all of this spoke to a much larger X’thari presence in the Grathdan Sector than anyone had suspected. Dutifully, Virstina went through the reports, until she came to Jester’s after-action report. Something troubled her about it. Pulling up the sector map, she plotted the action site, and then the course the Raider that escaped took to break contact. It was a straight-line course to the Coldana System.

Virstina sighed. She was privately glad that the Admiral had decided to play ‘hooky’. Everyone knew that he got antsy when he was cooped up for too long, so giving him some space to be ‘normal’ was all well and good. Of course, she DID have a tactical team following her Master discretely. He hadn’t ordered her not to, and by this point he probably already knew they were there. He could pretend he was a normal man, but Virstina had a responsibility to see that he stayed alive.

Now, she was going to have to cut his ‘vacation’ short. Hitting a button on her communicator, she waited until the other side picked up, and said, “Raven, it is Slave-Captain Virstina, on the Ama-no-Murakumo. We have multiple confirmed X’thari raiders in the sector, striking freighter traffic. One scout ship escape, probable destination Coldana.”

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Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

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