37,551 / 50,000
Chapter 21: Ride the lightning.
It took a few days, but Alex, Shannon, and Robert managed to codify the drive weakness into something usable. They tested it on a few of the drones they had available to them, and found that the exploit would not only disable the drive, but there was a one in 3 change of the drive detonating as well. In addition, the effect could be generated using a modified particle streamer, which every ship in the fleet had plenty of. Fortunately, they were testing about a kilometer from the Hillary, do all they did was create some entertaining explosions. They had a meeting with several of the other groups that were working on reverse engineering the drones, and the Trio was interested to find that the capital ships used a similar type of drive. They promised to try the exploit on a larger scale with the next single capital ship they ran across. The team working on subverting the C&C channel had little luck, but had figured out what the "stand down" command was, which they thought might be useful. Unfortunately, they could not override any commands that were sent to it, and a second command to attack would invariably bring the drone active again.
On board ship, life returned to something approaching normal. Butler had truly reformed and had turned into something of a decent human being, and the two junior officers from the first attack had performed a complete reversal of their behaviors. Ted had come to the conclusion that apparently, Hicks was the 'bad apple' that was causing most of the problems. The rest of the crew were beginning to get used to seeing stuff out of what they considered 'normal': There were people openly discussing magic, and there were a few people that decided that walking around in hybrid was a good idea. All in all, though, the crew kept working as a team, and when a scout ship reported that a group of ten capital ships were entering the interdiction zone, they almost all cheered at the prospect of kicking more mechanical ass.
It had been a three hour flight to earth orbit around the star in the Outland sector. This was where the Shivans had been spotted heading to. The battle group had decided to test the Magi's idea for a massive gate-assisted plasma cannon on this group first, then the gravitic exploit second on the survivors. Ted, Alex, and the Couple were all heading on form the Hillary, while a fourth fighter just appeared half an hour into their trip. It was covered in a orange and black tiger stripes, and had a large tigerean cymbol painted on it. The Gate assisted plasma lance required four ships to act as anchors for one end of the gate, and three mages: one to handle the gate, and two to handle the construct that would siphon stellar plasma into a coherent beam, which would then be fired through the gate, and directly in the path of the inbound fleet. For the second part, all four ships were re-fitted with the modified cannons on their #5 and #6 positions. Robert and Shannon were to provide the tap from the star to not only power the gate and also provide the two magi with the energy to put up the construct and to control it. Shannon was selected to help with the power for the lance, Alex said he would handle the gate as that was his specialty, and a third as yet unknown mage would help with the lance. This unknown was also in command. A fourth ship was being flow by Ted, who volunteered for this assignment. As they got into position, Georgia One, the unknown mage, activated his comm. "ok, Let's have a check in please." Ted clicked in right away. "Georgia Two ready for action." Alex chimed in. "Georgia Three On standby for tap and gate." Robert clicked on. "Georgia 4 awaiting orders. I'm ready to tap the star, and the lady is ready to play." This got him swatted as the other three guys chuckled over the link. Georgia One spoke up. "OK boys and girls, Let's get ready to do this. Shannon, Prepare to link with me when Robert has the taps established." Shannon mentally linked with him and gasped in astonishment: "Robert, that's Tigra!" The comm crackled. "Yes, it's me. Who else would lead such a crazy mission? I though you would have picked up on that when you saw my personal fighter and it's markings." More chuckling over the comm. Ted voice broke in. "Not so surprising over here. C'mon, let's do this thing."
Robert had begun concentrating and also clearing his mind: This was the first time he had ever attempted to tap a star for power, and he was heeding the warning about it being dangerous. He felt for it, and even at his light touch he could feel the raw fury of the stellar furnace he was about to tap. He decided to create the easiest to control taps first, and established the taps to the three mages. "OK, that was the easy part. Now comes the part that might kill us." He reached out for the sun, and established a tap. Almost immediately, he felt a huge surging sensation as the energy flowed into him, built up, and flowed out to the three mages almost faster then he could convert it. Shannon squeaked as Robert became erect almost immediately, his member pressing against the two of them. He heard Tigra's voice bark out over the comm. "Careful, you are tapping way too much, throttle back. Robert withdrew so that he was just barely touching the maelstrom, and the next thing he heard was Alex's voice stating that the gate was ready. He didn't hear, but rather felt Shannon mounting him, and she started casting the spell to activate the framework that Tigra had finished building. Robert suddenly heard Shannon and Tigra is his mind: *OK Robert, you be able to feel the framework out there. Initiate the biggest tap to it as possible, and when we give the word, open your tap to the star as wide open as you can manage. We'll do the rest.* Robert felt out into space, and found the framework. He initiated what he though would be a large enough tap, but He heard Tigra's voice in his head stating *Bigger. MUCH bigger* He increased the size until he was told to stop, and then sat for a minute, revealing in the feeling of having a star on tap. They all said*NOW* both mentally and over the radio. Robert plunged the tap into the star fully, and he could barely get out a scream of pain as the fury of the star spilled through him and out the tap and into space.
Ted was listening to the comms traffic when he saw the plume of a solar flare jump to the gate, and Robert's sudden grunt. He looked on in shock and wonder as the plume turned into a jet of raw power and fury as it passed by him and through the gate. In the distance, he could see the exit point: an area that was dark suddenly turned bright, with many staccato flashes as the plasma bolt passed through the Shivans like a blowtorch going through tissue paper.He turned and looked at Gertrude's Getaway, and was shocked to see the lifepod glowing a livid purple and blue, and then he heard Robert's grunt turn to a painful scream as the lance finally stopped. The gate collapsed shortly thereafter, and he heard Shannon's voice on the Comm:" Folks, I think Robert's out cold. Unless someone has a better idea, I'm going to put Gertrude on an autopilot course for the Hillary as fast as we can go. Robert also appears to have burn marks on him as well." Tigra stated that he would escort them in, and dismissed the two. Ted tried to protest, but Tigra ordered him to see what remained, and to mop up and try the gravitic cannon on what was left of the Shivan fleet.
Robert awoke in a private area of the Medbay. His first view of the world was the bloodshot eyes of Shannon. "Mmm... how long was I out, and did it work?" Shannon giggled. "You've been out for a day and a half. Everyone on board saw the lance annihilate the Fleet like an ice cube on a red hot griddle. Tigra is actually disappointed. There was not enough of the Shivan battle fleet to try the cannon out on. The Magi are seeing this as redemption. Oh, and a large portion of the female members of the Magi want to have your children, once they heard just who was primarily responsible for channeling that much energy." Robert nodded weakly. "I guess that means that it worked then. How's the Getaway? How much skin did I leave on the seat?" Shannon giggled again. "None, actually, although the manual control systems did short out. I had to order the autopilot via voice control. We should have that repaired by the end of the day." Robert nodded again, and caught the eyes of the two doctors. "Hey docs. How bad am I?" The two Tigreans looked at him. "All things considered, you are in excellent health. Your voice is still rough from shouting yourself hoarse. The burn marks on your buttocks and feet should heal within a day, and your energy centers have already recovered."Robert nodded again. "Good can y'all leave me alone for a minute? I need to take a piss." The Tigreans left, but Shannon did not. "C'mon ya goof, I'll walk you over. Besides, there's nothing I have not already seen anyway." As Robert got out of the bed, he started to fall. Instead of catching himself, he shifted down to Bear form. He shook his head and muttered in Primal, "That was.. unexpected." Shannon looked at him. "Unexpected? You'd been human for well over 48 hours,and the last time we had any nookie was in the ship a little over 30 hours ago. I'm surprised you didn't shift in bed." He shrugged, a curious motion for a 500 pound bear to make, and proceeded to the nearest head. "Outta my way. I still gotta pee!"
(1727/1667)
It took a few days, but Alex, Shannon, and Robert managed to codify the drive weakness into something usable. They tested it on a few of the drones they had available to them, and found that the exploit would not only disable the drive, but there was a one in 3 change of the drive detonating as well. In addition, the effect could be generated using a modified particle streamer, which every ship in the fleet had plenty of. Fortunately, they were testing about a kilometer from the Hillary, do all they did was create some entertaining explosions. They had a meeting with several of the other groups that were working on reverse engineering the drones, and the Trio was interested to find that the capital ships used a similar type of drive. They promised to try the exploit on a larger scale with the next single capital ship they ran across. The team working on subverting the C&C channel had little luck, but had figured out what the "stand down" command was, which they thought might be useful. Unfortunately, they could not override any commands that were sent to it, and a second command to attack would invariably bring the drone active again.
On board ship, life returned to something approaching normal. Butler had truly reformed and had turned into something of a decent human being, and the two junior officers from the first attack had performed a complete reversal of their behaviors. Ted had come to the conclusion that apparently, Hicks was the 'bad apple' that was causing most of the problems. The rest of the crew were beginning to get used to seeing stuff out of what they considered 'normal': There were people openly discussing magic, and there were a few people that decided that walking around in hybrid was a good idea. All in all, though, the crew kept working as a team, and when a scout ship reported that a group of ten capital ships were entering the interdiction zone, they almost all cheered at the prospect of kicking more mechanical ass.
It had been a three hour flight to earth orbit around the star in the Outland sector. This was where the Shivans had been spotted heading to. The battle group had decided to test the Magi's idea for a massive gate-assisted plasma cannon on this group first, then the gravitic exploit second on the survivors. Ted, Alex, and the Couple were all heading on form the Hillary, while a fourth fighter just appeared half an hour into their trip. It was covered in a orange and black tiger stripes, and had a large tigerean cymbol painted on it. The Gate assisted plasma lance required four ships to act as anchors for one end of the gate, and three mages: one to handle the gate, and two to handle the construct that would siphon stellar plasma into a coherent beam, which would then be fired through the gate, and directly in the path of the inbound fleet. For the second part, all four ships were re-fitted with the modified cannons on their #5 and #6 positions. Robert and Shannon were to provide the tap from the star to not only power the gate and also provide the two magi with the energy to put up the construct and to control it. Shannon was selected to help with the power for the lance, Alex said he would handle the gate as that was his specialty, and a third as yet unknown mage would help with the lance. This unknown was also in command. A fourth ship was being flow by Ted, who volunteered for this assignment. As they got into position, Georgia One, the unknown mage, activated his comm. "ok, Let's have a check in please." Ted clicked in right away. "Georgia Two ready for action." Alex chimed in. "Georgia Three On standby for tap and gate." Robert clicked on. "Georgia 4 awaiting orders. I'm ready to tap the star, and the lady is ready to play." This got him swatted as the other three guys chuckled over the link. Georgia One spoke up. "OK boys and girls, Let's get ready to do this. Shannon, Prepare to link with me when Robert has the taps established." Shannon mentally linked with him and gasped in astonishment: "Robert, that's Tigra!" The comm crackled. "Yes, it's me. Who else would lead such a crazy mission? I though you would have picked up on that when you saw my personal fighter and it's markings." More chuckling over the comm. Ted voice broke in. "Not so surprising over here. C'mon, let's do this thing."
Robert had begun concentrating and also clearing his mind: This was the first time he had ever attempted to tap a star for power, and he was heeding the warning about it being dangerous. He felt for it, and even at his light touch he could feel the raw fury of the stellar furnace he was about to tap. He decided to create the easiest to control taps first, and established the taps to the three mages. "OK, that was the easy part. Now comes the part that might kill us." He reached out for the sun, and established a tap. Almost immediately, he felt a huge surging sensation as the energy flowed into him, built up, and flowed out to the three mages almost faster then he could convert it. Shannon squeaked as Robert became erect almost immediately, his member pressing against the two of them. He heard Tigra's voice bark out over the comm. "Careful, you are tapping way too much, throttle back. Robert withdrew so that he was just barely touching the maelstrom, and the next thing he heard was Alex's voice stating that the gate was ready. He didn't hear, but rather felt Shannon mounting him, and she started casting the spell to activate the framework that Tigra had finished building. Robert suddenly heard Shannon and Tigra is his mind: *OK Robert, you be able to feel the framework out there. Initiate the biggest tap to it as possible, and when we give the word, open your tap to the star as wide open as you can manage. We'll do the rest.* Robert felt out into space, and found the framework. He initiated what he though would be a large enough tap, but He heard Tigra's voice in his head stating *Bigger. MUCH bigger* He increased the size until he was told to stop, and then sat for a minute, revealing in the feeling of having a star on tap. They all said*NOW* both mentally and over the radio. Robert plunged the tap into the star fully, and he could barely get out a scream of pain as the fury of the star spilled through him and out the tap and into space.
Ted was listening to the comms traffic when he saw the plume of a solar flare jump to the gate, and Robert's sudden grunt. He looked on in shock and wonder as the plume turned into a jet of raw power and fury as it passed by him and through the gate. In the distance, he could see the exit point: an area that was dark suddenly turned bright, with many staccato flashes as the plasma bolt passed through the Shivans like a blowtorch going through tissue paper.He turned and looked at Gertrude's Getaway, and was shocked to see the lifepod glowing a livid purple and blue, and then he heard Robert's grunt turn to a painful scream as the lance finally stopped. The gate collapsed shortly thereafter, and he heard Shannon's voice on the Comm:" Folks, I think Robert's out cold. Unless someone has a better idea, I'm going to put Gertrude on an autopilot course for the Hillary as fast as we can go. Robert also appears to have burn marks on him as well." Tigra stated that he would escort them in, and dismissed the two. Ted tried to protest, but Tigra ordered him to see what remained, and to mop up and try the gravitic cannon on what was left of the Shivan fleet.
Robert awoke in a private area of the Medbay. His first view of the world was the bloodshot eyes of Shannon. "Mmm... how long was I out, and did it work?" Shannon giggled. "You've been out for a day and a half. Everyone on board saw the lance annihilate the Fleet like an ice cube on a red hot griddle. Tigra is actually disappointed. There was not enough of the Shivan battle fleet to try the cannon out on. The Magi are seeing this as redemption. Oh, and a large portion of the female members of the Magi want to have your children, once they heard just who was primarily responsible for channeling that much energy." Robert nodded weakly. "I guess that means that it worked then. How's the Getaway? How much skin did I leave on the seat?" Shannon giggled again. "None, actually, although the manual control systems did short out. I had to order the autopilot via voice control. We should have that repaired by the end of the day." Robert nodded again, and caught the eyes of the two doctors. "Hey docs. How bad am I?" The two Tigreans looked at him. "All things considered, you are in excellent health. Your voice is still rough from shouting yourself hoarse. The burn marks on your buttocks and feet should heal within a day, and your energy centers have already recovered."Robert nodded again. "Good can y'all leave me alone for a minute? I need to take a piss." The Tigreans left, but Shannon did not. "C'mon ya goof, I'll walk you over. Besides, there's nothing I have not already seen anyway." As Robert got out of the bed, he started to fall. Instead of catching himself, he shifted down to Bear form. He shook his head and muttered in Primal, "That was.. unexpected." Shannon looked at him. "Unexpected? You'd been human for well over 48 hours,and the last time we had any nookie was in the ship a little over 30 hours ago. I'm surprised you didn't shift in bed." He shrugged, a curious motion for a 500 pound bear to make, and proceeded to the nearest head. "Outta my way. I still gotta pee!"
(1727/1667)