41,770/ 50,000 (I'm gettin there!)
Chapter 23: More with the fighting
Robert and Shannon were tired. They had been in the "lifepod", or pilot compartment of their Buzzsaw class fighter for almost a full day. Robert had amusingly named this fighter Gertrude's Getaway after the name he gave the pseudo-intellegence that provided most of the gruntwork of flying a high performance starfighter. This fighter was normaly a one-passenger ship, but it had been fitted with a special two-passenger 'pod that was normally used for training purposes. The fact that the seats were mostly hard plastic and metal did little to comfort their bodies. Due to Shannon's special magical talents, they both were required to be naked in order for most of Shannon's higher powered spells to function. Such was the downfall of a Tantric mage: For most of their more powerful spells, they had to be in intimate contact with either their target, or their energy source. The offset of this was that their spells were generally more powerful then any of the other traditions that the Magi fell under. Robert fell under the catagory of 'power source', as he was the most power energy source that the Human-Tigearean Alliance had availible: a Wellspring.
Robert shifted in the saddle that he had been cramed into for the past 20 hours, and yawned. He had shifted to hybrid form which although taller then his normal human form, just fit into the pod. THis way he figured he would'nt accidentally shift into full bear form , which would definately cause a space issue in the tiny 'pod. Shannon was sleeping on him and drooling into his chest fur while they were waiting for the 'all-clear' to be announced, to make sure that the Hive Mind really was dead. They had been tricked more then once, and this brought Robert back to thinking how the war finally came to an end, starting with the battle they had just fought not 20 hours prior.
"Bravo Two ready for flight!" Robert stated on the comm as the lifepod cleared the boarding room. They were, as usual, the last to leave. They had stowed their flight jumpers in a luggage bin the size of a collage dorm refridgerator behind the seats before getting aboard and closing the main door to the 'pod. As usual, Shannon was facing him, as she had boarded the lifepod backwards. This was normally wrong for it's original intended purpose, but for what they were using it for, it suited them just fine with a minor modification: they had taken out the seperator seat and put a cover and padding over the space where it normally mounted. Fortunatly, the Repair shop aboard the dropship Hillary had the facilities to have something like this made up, especially with Shannon being assigned normally to the rapir squad that maintained Bravo squad. Since this was going to be a long battle, they had also packed some rations, and stowed them in a more accessible pocket on the hatch to the pod. The lifepod already had potable water availible for the pilots, which made the ration bars only slightly more paletable. They may work ok for nutrition, but they sure tasted awful.
After the fighter had left the confines of the drop ship's launch tube, which accelerated it up to what the command directorate called "attack speed", robert fired the thrusters to point the ship to a small area away from the main fighting group where a group of 9 other ships waited for him and Shannon to arrive. The four engines on the Getaway had been idling when they had cleared the ship, and he now pressed them for full burn, and triggered the trusters to negate the half gee of unwanted movement. They met up with the rest of his small group five minutes after that, and they discussed over a private comm channel how they would attacke the hive mind's ship directly while the rest of the Alliance Fleet kept the Shivan Battle fleet busy. They all agreed that it was important to take out the Hive mind as quickly as possible, and direct any further attacks on the remainder of the ships. They already had a method for jamming the Hyperwave transmissions that the hive mind would make which they hopes would throw the fleet into a state of confusion. They also decided on just how they would destroy a computer the size of a K5 class dropship: They'd toss it into a black hole. Alex had a slight tilt in his voice. "What the hell; it worked with the droneships, and the captured computer core still had no clue on how to deal with the gates we generate. I figure a gate to Hercules X-1 should do it. Even if it don't, it'll make for a helluva bang when the gate blows from the gravitic stress."
They decided to try that first, as as a backup to create a gate linking the ship to the core of the local star. They had another hour to finalize all the plans, and another 30 minutes to get into position and implement. They were far enough out that Robert could still tap the star for energy, but they were not in the immediate vicinity of anything. They finalized the plans, and Shannon cloaked the fighter as everyone got into position. One of the ships held a non-mage, a werewolf by the name of Lt. Colonel Ted "Action" Jackson. He would be providing cover for Robert's fighter in the event they came under attack. Shannon cloaked his ship as well, and assured him that he was invisible to most forms of mechanical detection. Other mages would know he was there, and the Alliance war controllers knew he was there by his Hyperwave beacon and comm link. Robert concentrated, and started the laborious task of creating taps for the 8 mages that he would be supplying power to. Shannon would create her own tap in her own special way later if required.
Shannon had been tasked with the defense of local space surrounding their ship. This comprised mostly of making sure that the A.I, Gertrude, had been properly placed into defensive mode, and to set a course to high tail it out of their if they came under fire. She also set about preparing a shield spell, even though she did not have the energy to create it. With the way Robert had reacted the prior times to tapping a star, she noted that she would have no difficulty tapping him for power at all. In addition, Ted was also there not only to keep an eye on things, but to help out if it dropped in the pot. They had all been in position for about fifteen minutes when the Shivans came into view. They noted over the private comm-net that the fleet was pretty damn impressive: 20+ droneships, 5 factory ships in the rear, 3 ships that looked something like the Shivan equivilent of the Pacificia, the Alliance's World class battleship, and finally in the middle of the battle group was a ship fully twice the size of the Pacifica, the Hive-mind. "It sure looks pretty" Ted said in a dream-like voice. "Too bad it's going bye-bye." This brought everyone back to reality, and they waited patiently for the Alliance fleet to engage the enemy. Ted sent a coded signal back to the main fleet signalling that they were ready, and the Pacifica opened with the first shot: It's plasma cannons fired into a gate that was placed directly next to one of the Shiavan battleships, which dissappeared into an explanding cloud of gas and particles. The explosion took out two droneships next to it, and the fight was on.
Robert was snapped back into reality by the radio chatter. The mages had finally come to the conclusion that the hive mind was in fact dead, and that it had transferred itself to anything else. The Command Directorate insisted that they check every single ship in the hive-minds decimated fleet to verify that the were all deactivated before they would release and declare victory. With a shrug, Robert woke up Shannon. She looked up at him, realized that she had been drooling on his chest, which made the two giggle. Reaching up to a compartment Robert joked. "Don't move- I'll get you a towel." This had the effect of cracking both of them up. Along with a towel, he handed her a ration bar. As she took both the towel and the ration bar, He grabbed another bar out of the storage locker and started munching on it, wrapper and all. "I think they taste better with the wrapper on, actualy." Shannon smiled "I didn't know the wrapper was edible." Robert grinned a toothy grin. "Yep. I don't see a trash bin in here, and floating debris can mess up a control system like you would not believe." Shannon grinned. "You still tapped into the star?" Robert shook his head. "Nope. Too hard to hold onto. I've got the tap ready, just not actively in the star, just in case. I'm just waiting for them to singal a stand down, and then we can get the fuck out of this tin can." Shannon nodded, and started recalling her self as she munched on the bar just how bad the fight had been.
The drones had all gone ballistic at the first shot by the Pacifica, and quickly were taken out by the massive arrays of particle streamers, both standard and the modified versions. These modified version fired a modulated stream which interfeared with the drone's gravitic drive and power plant. At the same time, the Alliance capital ships started to pick away at the capital ships of the Shiavan fleet. The group of Magi that was sitting in an overwatch position got everything ready, and Robert engaged the tap which turned him into a conduit for the raw fury and power of the star they were in orbit around. Handing this energy out to the mages tapped into him, things progressed quickly. Unseen to any eyes, a gate shimmered into view in the heart of the Hive-Mind's processor core, and opened to something tht would be described as the closest thing to Hell: the event horizon of the blackhole in Hercules X-1. To the outside observer, the sihp containing the Hive-Mind came to a sudden stop as if had run into an invisible wall. Thirty seconds later the middle of the ship seemed to implode a small amount, then a massive explosion tore the middle of the ship apart, sending fragments of the hull into the nearby ships and into the gloud of drones that were intended to protect the ship. Half the drones became inert, but were soon taken up by one of the massive factory ships in the rear as it became the new Hive-Mind. The Magi has expected this, and this process was repeated several times over the next ten minutes. Halfway through, however, Ted noted in alarm that a droneship and it's small cloud of drones had broken off the main group an were heading to them. The rest of the Magi were busy dealing with the annialation of the hive mind, but Shannon took direct action: a minute later as the first drones were approaching the drone ship dissappeared in a flash of light and gravitic waves. Ted set to work using the small C&C box that had been recently welded to the side of his ship, and soon the Magi had their own cloud of Drones to protect them.
The Command Directorate finally gave the All-Clear, and the Magi started their trek back to their respective ships. Robert dismissed all the taps, and Gertrude's Getaway started making it's way back to the Hillary. They got within 100 meters of the Fleet and noticed that the Fleet had taken some heavy damage, dispite the Magi working as fast as possible to destroy the Hive Mind. The Pacifica had borne the brunt of the damage, with almost a full third of the forward section of the ship either burning, venting atmosphere, or simply gone. The Hillary had not escaped unscathed either: She had taken a direct ramming attack by several dozen drones amidships, and had some major damage to several of the living areas as well. Robert and Shannon though that they would be ok anyhow as the docks were located in the very heart of the ship, but as they approached their normal docking area, they got turned away. The boarding room was severly damaged and was currently open to vaccuum. The Dock controller, however, directed them to dock on one of the bays that the Tornado class ships of Alpha squadron used, as that bay was fully intact. They realized that they would need to put their flight jumpers back on, and Shannon was contorting her self to allow robert to open the cargo space where he had stowed them. They had just gotten the jumpers about, and were hurriedly putting them as as the 'pod engaged the boarding room's airlock. As they exited their fighter, Ted was waiting for them. He was wearing one of the light spacesuits with his helmet on, and he was holding two two more of them, which he handed to each of them. "You'll need these to get back to your cabin. I'll have new assignments for you shortly. Go to your cabin, grab whatever you can stuff in a duffle, and meet me in room 55 for de-brief." He looked very tired. Robert and Shannon stepped into the airlock that served as an access point for inspection of the fighters when docked, and they floated down the dock's long access corridor down the where Bravo Squadron normally lived. As they started down the corridor, they saw that their fighter was being pulled out of the docking bay and placed into one of the holding cradles where extra ships were normally kept.
Their cabin was at least intact, although they knew better then to try and open any of the sealed cases where they kept their stuff. THey grabbed a duffle, stuffed a bunch of clothes and a few of the smaller crates into it, and made their way back out the way they came in, via the boarding room. They saw what had happened. a drone had somehow entered the dock, and went straight for one of the airlocks that the lifepods normally occupied. Dispite the airlock doors being heavily armored, the drone exploding on it vented the boarding room to space on contact. Fortunately, the emergency doors were already closed, so there was not a lot of damage or loss of life. It took them 30 minutes, but they made it up to level 3 without too much hassle. They entered room 55, and were greated not by the dull grey room, but instead they entered a large auditorium. Ch'Mee ws waiting there. "Welcome back! I am glad to see that you have survived!" he said. Robert looked around the place. "Ch'Mee, were are we?" A distinguished sounding male voice with an impeccable british accent answered. "This is an auditorium attached to the Castle Talon, in the foothills of the Appalachians."
(2540/1667)
Robert and Shannon were tired. They had been in the "lifepod", or pilot compartment of their Buzzsaw class fighter for almost a full day. Robert had amusingly named this fighter Gertrude's Getaway after the name he gave the pseudo-intellegence that provided most of the gruntwork of flying a high performance starfighter. This fighter was normaly a one-passenger ship, but it had been fitted with a special two-passenger 'pod that was normally used for training purposes. The fact that the seats were mostly hard plastic and metal did little to comfort their bodies. Due to Shannon's special magical talents, they both were required to be naked in order for most of Shannon's higher powered spells to function. Such was the downfall of a Tantric mage: For most of their more powerful spells, they had to be in intimate contact with either their target, or their energy source. The offset of this was that their spells were generally more powerful then any of the other traditions that the Magi fell under. Robert fell under the catagory of 'power source', as he was the most power energy source that the Human-Tigearean Alliance had availible: a Wellspring.
Robert shifted in the saddle that he had been cramed into for the past 20 hours, and yawned. He had shifted to hybrid form which although taller then his normal human form, just fit into the pod. THis way he figured he would'nt accidentally shift into full bear form , which would definately cause a space issue in the tiny 'pod. Shannon was sleeping on him and drooling into his chest fur while they were waiting for the 'all-clear' to be announced, to make sure that the Hive Mind really was dead. They had been tricked more then once, and this brought Robert back to thinking how the war finally came to an end, starting with the battle they had just fought not 20 hours prior.
"Bravo Two ready for flight!" Robert stated on the comm as the lifepod cleared the boarding room. They were, as usual, the last to leave. They had stowed their flight jumpers in a luggage bin the size of a collage dorm refridgerator behind the seats before getting aboard and closing the main door to the 'pod. As usual, Shannon was facing him, as she had boarded the lifepod backwards. This was normally wrong for it's original intended purpose, but for what they were using it for, it suited them just fine with a minor modification: they had taken out the seperator seat and put a cover and padding over the space where it normally mounted. Fortunatly, the Repair shop aboard the dropship Hillary had the facilities to have something like this made up, especially with Shannon being assigned normally to the rapir squad that maintained Bravo squad. Since this was going to be a long battle, they had also packed some rations, and stowed them in a more accessible pocket on the hatch to the pod. The lifepod already had potable water availible for the pilots, which made the ration bars only slightly more paletable. They may work ok for nutrition, but they sure tasted awful.
After the fighter had left the confines of the drop ship's launch tube, which accelerated it up to what the command directorate called "attack speed", robert fired the thrusters to point the ship to a small area away from the main fighting group where a group of 9 other ships waited for him and Shannon to arrive. The four engines on the Getaway had been idling when they had cleared the ship, and he now pressed them for full burn, and triggered the trusters to negate the half gee of unwanted movement. They met up with the rest of his small group five minutes after that, and they discussed over a private comm channel how they would attacke the hive mind's ship directly while the rest of the Alliance Fleet kept the Shivan Battle fleet busy. They all agreed that it was important to take out the Hive mind as quickly as possible, and direct any further attacks on the remainder of the ships. They already had a method for jamming the Hyperwave transmissions that the hive mind would make which they hopes would throw the fleet into a state of confusion. They also decided on just how they would destroy a computer the size of a K5 class dropship: They'd toss it into a black hole. Alex had a slight tilt in his voice. "What the hell; it worked with the droneships, and the captured computer core still had no clue on how to deal with the gates we generate. I figure a gate to Hercules X-1 should do it. Even if it don't, it'll make for a helluva bang when the gate blows from the gravitic stress."
They decided to try that first, as as a backup to create a gate linking the ship to the core of the local star. They had another hour to finalize all the plans, and another 30 minutes to get into position and implement. They were far enough out that Robert could still tap the star for energy, but they were not in the immediate vicinity of anything. They finalized the plans, and Shannon cloaked the fighter as everyone got into position. One of the ships held a non-mage, a werewolf by the name of Lt. Colonel Ted "Action" Jackson. He would be providing cover for Robert's fighter in the event they came under attack. Shannon cloaked his ship as well, and assured him that he was invisible to most forms of mechanical detection. Other mages would know he was there, and the Alliance war controllers knew he was there by his Hyperwave beacon and comm link. Robert concentrated, and started the laborious task of creating taps for the 8 mages that he would be supplying power to. Shannon would create her own tap in her own special way later if required.
Shannon had been tasked with the defense of local space surrounding their ship. This comprised mostly of making sure that the A.I, Gertrude, had been properly placed into defensive mode, and to set a course to high tail it out of their if they came under fire. She also set about preparing a shield spell, even though she did not have the energy to create it. With the way Robert had reacted the prior times to tapping a star, she noted that she would have no difficulty tapping him for power at all. In addition, Ted was also there not only to keep an eye on things, but to help out if it dropped in the pot. They had all been in position for about fifteen minutes when the Shivans came into view. They noted over the private comm-net that the fleet was pretty damn impressive: 20+ droneships, 5 factory ships in the rear, 3 ships that looked something like the Shivan equivilent of the Pacificia, the Alliance's World class battleship, and finally in the middle of the battle group was a ship fully twice the size of the Pacifica, the Hive-mind. "It sure looks pretty" Ted said in a dream-like voice. "Too bad it's going bye-bye." This brought everyone back to reality, and they waited patiently for the Alliance fleet to engage the enemy. Ted sent a coded signal back to the main fleet signalling that they were ready, and the Pacifica opened with the first shot: It's plasma cannons fired into a gate that was placed directly next to one of the Shiavan battleships, which dissappeared into an explanding cloud of gas and particles. The explosion took out two droneships next to it, and the fight was on.
Robert was snapped back into reality by the radio chatter. The mages had finally come to the conclusion that the hive mind was in fact dead, and that it had transferred itself to anything else. The Command Directorate insisted that they check every single ship in the hive-minds decimated fleet to verify that the were all deactivated before they would release and declare victory. With a shrug, Robert woke up Shannon. She looked up at him, realized that she had been drooling on his chest, which made the two giggle. Reaching up to a compartment Robert joked. "Don't move- I'll get you a towel." This had the effect of cracking both of them up. Along with a towel, he handed her a ration bar. As she took both the towel and the ration bar, He grabbed another bar out of the storage locker and started munching on it, wrapper and all. "I think they taste better with the wrapper on, actualy." Shannon smiled "I didn't know the wrapper was edible." Robert grinned a toothy grin. "Yep. I don't see a trash bin in here, and floating debris can mess up a control system like you would not believe." Shannon grinned. "You still tapped into the star?" Robert shook his head. "Nope. Too hard to hold onto. I've got the tap ready, just not actively in the star, just in case. I'm just waiting for them to singal a stand down, and then we can get the fuck out of this tin can." Shannon nodded, and started recalling her self as she munched on the bar just how bad the fight had been.
The drones had all gone ballistic at the first shot by the Pacifica, and quickly were taken out by the massive arrays of particle streamers, both standard and the modified versions. These modified version fired a modulated stream which interfeared with the drone's gravitic drive and power plant. At the same time, the Alliance capital ships started to pick away at the capital ships of the Shiavan fleet. The group of Magi that was sitting in an overwatch position got everything ready, and Robert engaged the tap which turned him into a conduit for the raw fury and power of the star they were in orbit around. Handing this energy out to the mages tapped into him, things progressed quickly. Unseen to any eyes, a gate shimmered into view in the heart of the Hive-Mind's processor core, and opened to something tht would be described as the closest thing to Hell: the event horizon of the blackhole in Hercules X-1. To the outside observer, the sihp containing the Hive-Mind came to a sudden stop as if had run into an invisible wall. Thirty seconds later the middle of the ship seemed to implode a small amount, then a massive explosion tore the middle of the ship apart, sending fragments of the hull into the nearby ships and into the gloud of drones that were intended to protect the ship. Half the drones became inert, but were soon taken up by one of the massive factory ships in the rear as it became the new Hive-Mind. The Magi has expected this, and this process was repeated several times over the next ten minutes. Halfway through, however, Ted noted in alarm that a droneship and it's small cloud of drones had broken off the main group an were heading to them. The rest of the Magi were busy dealing with the annialation of the hive mind, but Shannon took direct action: a minute later as the first drones were approaching the drone ship dissappeared in a flash of light and gravitic waves. Ted set to work using the small C&C box that had been recently welded to the side of his ship, and soon the Magi had their own cloud of Drones to protect them.
The Command Directorate finally gave the All-Clear, and the Magi started their trek back to their respective ships. Robert dismissed all the taps, and Gertrude's Getaway started making it's way back to the Hillary. They got within 100 meters of the Fleet and noticed that the Fleet had taken some heavy damage, dispite the Magi working as fast as possible to destroy the Hive Mind. The Pacifica had borne the brunt of the damage, with almost a full third of the forward section of the ship either burning, venting atmosphere, or simply gone. The Hillary had not escaped unscathed either: She had taken a direct ramming attack by several dozen drones amidships, and had some major damage to several of the living areas as well. Robert and Shannon though that they would be ok anyhow as the docks were located in the very heart of the ship, but as they approached their normal docking area, they got turned away. The boarding room was severly damaged and was currently open to vaccuum. The Dock controller, however, directed them to dock on one of the bays that the Tornado class ships of Alpha squadron used, as that bay was fully intact. They realized that they would need to put their flight jumpers back on, and Shannon was contorting her self to allow robert to open the cargo space where he had stowed them. They had just gotten the jumpers about, and were hurriedly putting them as as the 'pod engaged the boarding room's airlock. As they exited their fighter, Ted was waiting for them. He was wearing one of the light spacesuits with his helmet on, and he was holding two two more of them, which he handed to each of them. "You'll need these to get back to your cabin. I'll have new assignments for you shortly. Go to your cabin, grab whatever you can stuff in a duffle, and meet me in room 55 for de-brief." He looked very tired. Robert and Shannon stepped into the airlock that served as an access point for inspection of the fighters when docked, and they floated down the dock's long access corridor down the where Bravo Squadron normally lived. As they started down the corridor, they saw that their fighter was being pulled out of the docking bay and placed into one of the holding cradles where extra ships were normally kept.
Their cabin was at least intact, although they knew better then to try and open any of the sealed cases where they kept their stuff. THey grabbed a duffle, stuffed a bunch of clothes and a few of the smaller crates into it, and made their way back out the way they came in, via the boarding room. They saw what had happened. a drone had somehow entered the dock, and went straight for one of the airlocks that the lifepods normally occupied. Dispite the airlock doors being heavily armored, the drone exploding on it vented the boarding room to space on contact. Fortunately, the emergency doors were already closed, so there was not a lot of damage or loss of life. It took them 30 minutes, but they made it up to level 3 without too much hassle. They entered room 55, and were greated not by the dull grey room, but instead they entered a large auditorium. Ch'Mee ws waiting there. "Welcome back! I am glad to see that you have survived!" he said. Robert looked around the place. "Ch'Mee, were are we?" A distinguished sounding male voice with an impeccable british accent answered. "This is an auditorium attached to the Castle Talon, in the foothills of the Appalachians."
(2540/1667)