34,007 / 50,000 (how Bond-esque!)
Chapter 19: Mayhem, Inc.
The Alliance Fleet had been in ambush position for the past three hours as the Shivan ships made their way to them. The Shivans had never mastered the tech behind jump gates, or if they had, they could not use it for whatever reason. This disadvantage was offset by the fact that between the five ship convoy there were a million droneships that formed a protective cloud 300 meters in diameter around each ship. Robert and Shannon had, as usual, been the last ship to launch when the Shivans were nearing position. They went to a position 500 meters below the convoy and waited. There was one other mage that was near them, and they had plotted how best to attack the two factory ships. They had already settled on the method: They would first disable as much of the ships as possible by reversing the charge polarity of the plasma contained in the giant main plants that powered the ships, and then they would form a Gate to the black hole in Hercules X-1 to dispose of what was left. Robert had stated that he would need one of the droneships left alive so that he could tap it for power. Alex, the mage who was part of Alpha Squadron, agreed.
When the Shivans finally came into sight, the drones flew into action in an attempt to overwhelm the defenses of the Fleet. That was the ship that Robert tapped for power, and the two mages started casting their conversion spells on the factories. Two minutes later they both flared into bright white light and a cloud of charged particles as the plamsa reactors suddenly found that the plasma they were containing changed from positive to negative polarity. Amid the cheers from the fleet, they quickly changed to target the other two droneships, and found that they had shut their reactors down already. Robert still had the power on tap from the third ship. "Let me try something," He muttered over the private channel they had established.
Robert concentrated on creating a tap to one of the droneships with a shut down reactor. Using energy from the first one, he jump started the second one. "Holy shit that worked! Try the polarity flip again Alex!" Alex did as instructed, and the droneship joined the two factories as an additional cloud of hot gas and debris. They saw something depart from the remaining ships. "Crap, they ejected the plants. I've got enough for the gates, let's get to work." With Robert feeding them energy, both mages created gates to the black hole. Three minutes later they were greeted by an additional explosion as both ships suddenly stopped dead in space and collapsed into themselves. They both exploded after they were two thirds collapsed. Unfortunately, the remained included on of the ship's computer core and a redundant power supply, which meant that the drones continued their attack. Fortunately, it could only control some 50,000 drones, but Shannon agreed that it was 50,000 too many. Plus, as drones were destroyed, the computer activated more from the cloud that surrounded it. Alex was tapped out. "Alex, keep yourself there. Can I steal some energy from your fighter?" Alex readily agreed, and Robert tapped the plant on the Tornado for power. It took a minute, but soon he and Shannon had enough power to open one more gate. Three more minuted passed, and then the remainder of the first ship vanished in a blast of light and gravimetric waves as the gate collapsed under the strain of trying to stay open near a black hole. Even then, the cloud was still mildly active until the plasma cannons of the Sh'Maa and the Ka'renth opened fire and turned the drones into ash. Robert dropped the tap after Shannon had started the final gate, and after the core was destroyed they called to Alex, as the comm link dropped as soon as Robert initiated the tap. "I'm fine, but we need to find a different source next time. I lost everything, including life support for a few minutes while you were tapping." Robert agreed and apologized, and they both made their way back to the Hillary. This gave Shannon time to think a bit, and by the time they had arrived, she was asking Robert about the energy requirements, and what size power plant they might need.
"You want me to pull a WHAT out of my ass for your private use?!?!?!" Colonel Stueben was livid. He knew that Shannon was a damned good tech, and therefore he humored her, but this had gone beyond humor. She was requesting the dedicated use of one of the spare auxiliary plants that was in the Repair bay. Robert, Shannon, and Ted nodded. "Why the fuck would I want to do that, and what 'n th' hall would you have need for it anyway? I got cranky enough when I got word from high up that you'd be flying with Robert here and even more cranky when you grabbed the training pod for your ship." Shannon nodded to Robert, who took off his shirt. "Sir, these symbols mark me as a person with the ability to tap energy sources, and give that energy to mages. I am the direct reason why we are here instead of arguing with the 5 capital ships we blow away yesterday." He felt to the Getaway, and tapped a small percentage of it's fusion plant. The central symbol on his chest started to glow, with top tip of the symbol below it started to glow a bright blue. "Shannon, give him an example. I'm tapping Bravo six at the moment." Stueben looked at one of the monitor boards in his office, which showed that there was a steady power drain on one of the docked buzzsaws. Shannon rubbed her thighs briefly, and was twirling a small witch light above her hands a few seconds later to Stueben's shocked gaze. Faintly visible under Shannon's shirt by her waist was a blue glow as well. " Well, I'll be damed. I've got a friend of two that are mages in civilian life, but they spoke of a wellspring only existing as a legend. And here you are, a Wellspring by what I've heard right in front of me." Robert nodded and dropped the tap to his ship. Let me guess, the reason why that last ship took so long to die is also the reason why Alex's ship had a total systems outage for ten minutes in the last sortie?" Robert nodded. "I had to tap his ship's power in order to feed it to Shannon, so she could create a gateway to a black hole. That's what has been destroying the ships. We generate either a quantum singularity in a ship, or we open a gateway to the event horizon of a known black hole. We let physics do the rest." The colonel nodded. "And that why you've been taking my best tech with you out into combat, and also why you've appropriate a hard to duplicate chunk of equipment?" Ted and Shannon nodded at the same time. "Colonel," Ted said," They take more then adequate measures. the only reason why we know where they are is because they use a hyperspace-based tracking system to determine their exact position out in space. You know this as well as I do. Shannon also weaves a cloacking field around the ship so that it remains unseen, and they also stay away from the locations where there is active fighting occurring."
In the end, The colonel agreed, but stated that they would likely need Stromson's approval. They all presented their request to him in his office on Deck 2. He declined the request, but then stated his reason why. " Folks, I have actually been ordered to dedicate a plant for your use. We were planning on letting you use the forward aux plant, which should have all the power you need for opening a gate, and them some. Unless you think that Tigra's idea is a poor one, that is." He had a smile on his face. Robert jumped out of his seat and stood at attention. "NO SIR! It sounds like an excellent idea SIR!" Ted and Stromson started chuckling. Colonel Struben looked at the two officers curiously. "I do not get the joke. care to fill me in?" Stromson stood up. "Yes, I think we ca fill you in. Let's move downstairs. We have something to show you, Colonel." They all trooped down to Room 55 on Deck 3, and Stromson proceeded to initiate the colonel into the club as an 'co-conspirator', which Ted found amusing. The Colonel was impressed that it was well hidden. "I am impressed. You managed to keep this place hidden from me even, and I'm a snooper of the highest caliber. I already knew something was strange with Shannon, but She always did the job, and always in slightly less them the timeframe I gave them to her, but I could never prove anything overtly. And I never knew that my CO, my counterpart on Bravo squad, and his best pilot were werecritters, either." He nodded to the large Boar, the wolf, and the rune-covered Bear sitting around him. I guess I owe you all a drink. The Bear shimmered and shifted back into Robert, who picked up the pile of clothing for the wolf and boar and placed them in the next room. The two walked into the room and Robert closed the door. a few moments later, Ted and Thomas strolled out of the room and went to the dispenser in the room. They both ordered sodas for everyone, and they all sat down at the round table in the room and talked for a while as to what the next move on the part of the mages would be. They needed an engineer to help them plot what they would do next, as their previous attacks would be known and probably useless to them at the next fight.
(1680/1667)
The Alliance Fleet had been in ambush position for the past three hours as the Shivan ships made their way to them. The Shivans had never mastered the tech behind jump gates, or if they had, they could not use it for whatever reason. This disadvantage was offset by the fact that between the five ship convoy there were a million droneships that formed a protective cloud 300 meters in diameter around each ship. Robert and Shannon had, as usual, been the last ship to launch when the Shivans were nearing position. They went to a position 500 meters below the convoy and waited. There was one other mage that was near them, and they had plotted how best to attack the two factory ships. They had already settled on the method: They would first disable as much of the ships as possible by reversing the charge polarity of the plasma contained in the giant main plants that powered the ships, and then they would form a Gate to the black hole in Hercules X-1 to dispose of what was left. Robert had stated that he would need one of the droneships left alive so that he could tap it for power. Alex, the mage who was part of Alpha Squadron, agreed.
When the Shivans finally came into sight, the drones flew into action in an attempt to overwhelm the defenses of the Fleet. That was the ship that Robert tapped for power, and the two mages started casting their conversion spells on the factories. Two minutes later they both flared into bright white light and a cloud of charged particles as the plamsa reactors suddenly found that the plasma they were containing changed from positive to negative polarity. Amid the cheers from the fleet, they quickly changed to target the other two droneships, and found that they had shut their reactors down already. Robert still had the power on tap from the third ship. "Let me try something," He muttered over the private channel they had established.
Robert concentrated on creating a tap to one of the droneships with a shut down reactor. Using energy from the first one, he jump started the second one. "Holy shit that worked! Try the polarity flip again Alex!" Alex did as instructed, and the droneship joined the two factories as an additional cloud of hot gas and debris. They saw something depart from the remaining ships. "Crap, they ejected the plants. I've got enough for the gates, let's get to work." With Robert feeding them energy, both mages created gates to the black hole. Three minutes later they were greeted by an additional explosion as both ships suddenly stopped dead in space and collapsed into themselves. They both exploded after they were two thirds collapsed. Unfortunately, the remained included on of the ship's computer core and a redundant power supply, which meant that the drones continued their attack. Fortunately, it could only control some 50,000 drones, but Shannon agreed that it was 50,000 too many. Plus, as drones were destroyed, the computer activated more from the cloud that surrounded it. Alex was tapped out. "Alex, keep yourself there. Can I steal some energy from your fighter?" Alex readily agreed, and Robert tapped the plant on the Tornado for power. It took a minute, but soon he and Shannon had enough power to open one more gate. Three more minuted passed, and then the remainder of the first ship vanished in a blast of light and gravimetric waves as the gate collapsed under the strain of trying to stay open near a black hole. Even then, the cloud was still mildly active until the plasma cannons of the Sh'Maa and the Ka'renth opened fire and turned the drones into ash. Robert dropped the tap after Shannon had started the final gate, and after the core was destroyed they called to Alex, as the comm link dropped as soon as Robert initiated the tap. "I'm fine, but we need to find a different source next time. I lost everything, including life support for a few minutes while you were tapping." Robert agreed and apologized, and they both made their way back to the Hillary. This gave Shannon time to think a bit, and by the time they had arrived, she was asking Robert about the energy requirements, and what size power plant they might need.
"You want me to pull a WHAT out of my ass for your private use?!?!?!" Colonel Stueben was livid. He knew that Shannon was a damned good tech, and therefore he humored her, but this had gone beyond humor. She was requesting the dedicated use of one of the spare auxiliary plants that was in the Repair bay. Robert, Shannon, and Ted nodded. "Why the fuck would I want to do that, and what 'n th' hall would you have need for it anyway? I got cranky enough when I got word from high up that you'd be flying with Robert here and even more cranky when you grabbed the training pod for your ship." Shannon nodded to Robert, who took off his shirt. "Sir, these symbols mark me as a person with the ability to tap energy sources, and give that energy to mages. I am the direct reason why we are here instead of arguing with the 5 capital ships we blow away yesterday." He felt to the Getaway, and tapped a small percentage of it's fusion plant. The central symbol on his chest started to glow, with top tip of the symbol below it started to glow a bright blue. "Shannon, give him an example. I'm tapping Bravo six at the moment." Stueben looked at one of the monitor boards in his office, which showed that there was a steady power drain on one of the docked buzzsaws. Shannon rubbed her thighs briefly, and was twirling a small witch light above her hands a few seconds later to Stueben's shocked gaze. Faintly visible under Shannon's shirt by her waist was a blue glow as well. " Well, I'll be damed. I've got a friend of two that are mages in civilian life, but they spoke of a wellspring only existing as a legend. And here you are, a Wellspring by what I've heard right in front of me." Robert nodded and dropped the tap to his ship. Let me guess, the reason why that last ship took so long to die is also the reason why Alex's ship had a total systems outage for ten minutes in the last sortie?" Robert nodded. "I had to tap his ship's power in order to feed it to Shannon, so she could create a gateway to a black hole. That's what has been destroying the ships. We generate either a quantum singularity in a ship, or we open a gateway to the event horizon of a known black hole. We let physics do the rest." The colonel nodded. "And that why you've been taking my best tech with you out into combat, and also why you've appropriate a hard to duplicate chunk of equipment?" Ted and Shannon nodded at the same time. "Colonel," Ted said," They take more then adequate measures. the only reason why we know where they are is because they use a hyperspace-based tracking system to determine their exact position out in space. You know this as well as I do. Shannon also weaves a cloacking field around the ship so that it remains unseen, and they also stay away from the locations where there is active fighting occurring."
In the end, The colonel agreed, but stated that they would likely need Stromson's approval. They all presented their request to him in his office on Deck 2. He declined the request, but then stated his reason why. " Folks, I have actually been ordered to dedicate a plant for your use. We were planning on letting you use the forward aux plant, which should have all the power you need for opening a gate, and them some. Unless you think that Tigra's idea is a poor one, that is." He had a smile on his face. Robert jumped out of his seat and stood at attention. "NO SIR! It sounds like an excellent idea SIR!" Ted and Stromson started chuckling. Colonel Struben looked at the two officers curiously. "I do not get the joke. care to fill me in?" Stromson stood up. "Yes, I think we ca fill you in. Let's move downstairs. We have something to show you, Colonel." They all trooped down to Room 55 on Deck 3, and Stromson proceeded to initiate the colonel into the club as an 'co-conspirator', which Ted found amusing. The Colonel was impressed that it was well hidden. "I am impressed. You managed to keep this place hidden from me even, and I'm a snooper of the highest caliber. I already knew something was strange with Shannon, but She always did the job, and always in slightly less them the timeframe I gave them to her, but I could never prove anything overtly. And I never knew that my CO, my counterpart on Bravo squad, and his best pilot were werecritters, either." He nodded to the large Boar, the wolf, and the rune-covered Bear sitting around him. I guess I owe you all a drink. The Bear shimmered and shifted back into Robert, who picked up the pile of clothing for the wolf and boar and placed them in the next room. The two walked into the room and Robert closed the door. a few moments later, Ted and Thomas strolled out of the room and went to the dispenser in the room. They both ordered sodas for everyone, and they all sat down at the round table in the room and talked for a while as to what the next move on the part of the mages would be. They needed an engineer to help them plot what they would do next, as their previous attacks would be known and probably useless to them at the next fight.
(1680/1667)