In Search of the Uldans, page 14
part #2 of Galactogon Series
“This is unfathomable treachery!” exclaimed the adviser, who had spent this entire time conferring with the Emperor and only now ended his private conversation to rejoin me. “This is war! The Qualians must pay for their perfidy!”
Your rapport with the Precian Empire has improved. Current value: 30.
Twelve cruisers were pouring all their fire on the Zatrathi shields without any effect. The enemy’s defenses handled both the EM and beam cannons without much trouble, regenerating their shields on the fly. Torpedoes were completely useless—the Zatrathi had no problem intercepting them a good distance from their ship. All this gave rise to an interesting impasse: The players were attacking as hard as they could, while the enemy defended as hard as it could, which meant that it couldn’t counterattack. I could safely go heat up some popcorn and wait for one of the sides to run out of energy or else change their battle tactics. The Zatrathi ship really did look terrifying and menacing with immense arcs of current sparking periodically among its myriad spires.
“Marina, if you have a Plan B, now is the time,” Gammon’s voice came on the comm. “What was that BFG you used on my cruiser? If it’s a matter of elo, I’ll help you out.”
“The Yamato Cannon. It’s a prototype. Firing it disabled it and it’ll need repairs. Let’s push! They can’t defend forever! Launch your fighters!”
No sooner said than done! Maybe out in meatspace the players had been knocked about the ears for missing too many days of work because now at least a hundred small points instantly scrambled from each cruiser. In open space, they looked like a dense cloud of insects. The fighters, which could ignore the energy shields quickly passed this barrier and rushed to the body of the enemy virus. It seemed as though a little more and we’d gain the upper hand, but I was wrong. An EM salvo from the Zatrathi ship knocked out our fighters’ electronics, turning them into space debris for a short period. While the pilots were resetting their systems, their fighters drifted in space without any control, bumping into each other. Curses and complaints filled the airwaves. Meanwhile, hangar doors opened in the Zatrathi ship unleashing squadrons of enemy fighters already familiar to me—no one was about to let the players reset their ships quietly. Here and there, our fighters began exploding into short-lived balls of fire that rolled into themselves—and left small shimmering crates. With one attack the Zatrathi plunged hundreds of fighter owners into despair, quickly and accurately knocking down their hard-earned ship-classes.
“Send the frigates to defend the fighters!” Kiddo instantly reacted to the change in the situation. Each of the cruisers could accommodate up to three frigates, but not all of them responded to the girl’s orders. Only a dozen or so rushed to the Zatrathi ship. The EM cannons fired again but the frigates’ anti-EM systems did their part. Only one of the ships shut down and the enemy fighters immediately blew it up. The survivors took up positions, defending the larger concentrations of our fighters. Sometimes they fired torpedoes, but they were easily intercepted—the Zatrathi ships had excellent point defense gunners. Our side had one effective weapon remaining—the beam cannons. Even if they couldn’t penetrate the enemies’ hulls, they did manage to keep away the Zatrathi from our fighters. Space again began to light up with short flashes, most of which were red this time around. The enemy was beginning to suffer losses.
“Two questions for you, Brainiac. The first is why is that the EM cannons have no effect on the enemy fighters? The second is what will happen to us if we fly closer?”
“You sure do like to ask difficult questions, Captain,” the snake answered instead. “There is no answer to the first one. The second answer is only a hypothetical one. Our shields should hold, assuming the Zatrathi don’t have any further surprises, but the torpedoes will give us trouble.”
Torpedoes? I frowned, peering into the screen. Hundreds of Zatrathi torpedoes were making their way towards our fighters and frigates. It looked like we had made them angry. If this is only part of their arsenal, then Kiddo, with her thirst for revenge, has set everyone up. Barely having time to reboot, our fighters rushed back under the protection of the cruisers. The frigates remained on the front line, trying to use their maneuverability to evade the torpedoes. But casualties were unavoidable. It took just a few moments for the battle to shift the other way. Four frigates and more than a hundred fighters had already set off to the ship graveyards.
The second wave of Zatrathi torpedoes came too late. All the surviving ships disappeared under the reliable protection of their cruisers, passing the baton of active combat to their teams. The guys on the cruisers extinguished the enemy’s torpedoes as soon as they left the Zatrathi ship’s shields. It was pleasant to watch the players coordinate to destroy the torpedoes. These boys weren’t playing for a top guild for nothing.
Once the Zatrathi fighters had no one to fight with, they turned back and disappeared into the bowels of their fortress.
After that the battle unfolded without any further climaxes or unexpected turns. Every thirty seconds the Zatrathi fired a salvo of torpedoes, our guys shot them out of the sky and then it was our turn to hit back. Nobody wanted to give up.
“Surgeon, we’re changing plans. We need you,” Kiddo said over the air. I immediately dialed her on my PDA.
“What did you want?”
“I want to sink that Zatrathi ship. Will you help me?”
“It depends on how.” The stubborn struggle had not persuaded me to join Kiddo and Gammon.
“I want you to board them.”
Hearing the offer, I snorted skeptically:
“Kiddo, that wasn’t in our agreement.”
“Yes, I know. But you can see for yourself—we can’t break through. They’re knocking out our torpedoes before they can close the distance. And they’re disabling our fighters. The only sensible option is to board them. Look, they haven’t had the time to fix their hull. This is our chance!”
“Brainiac, move the ship as carefully as possible to this location.” I indicated a point on the map from which I could assess the damage to the Zatrathi hull. One of the spires was peppered with numerous holes. The orbship could well slip inside. Assuming I wanted to.
The Qualian repair ships were working on restoring the outer hull and shield. The innards were being repaired by the Zatrathi themselves—they crawled with slug engineers.
“Surgeon, are you going to say anything?” Marina was waiting for my assent and pressured me on the public channel instead of the PDA. “We will provide fire support. And we’ll give you our best marines. Come on, I know you! You’re a true professional, not some wuss who sits behind the lines. Make up your mind!”
“Let’s dispense with the crude flattery, Kiddo,” I winced from the stupidity of what she had just said. Her attempt to put me in the public limelight hadn’t gone as she had planned it. “In theory, I can survive the fire from the EM cannons and sneak in there. But I will regret losing my cargo if I something happens.”
“Surgeon, we are partners and can always come to some agreement. Let’s do it this way—you can keep sixty percent of the loot from your boarding action. The rest will go to the marines.”
“That’s more like it! Now you’re talking like a business partner, partner! Let’s wait for the next wave of torpedoes. As soon as you knock it out, I’ll fly into the breach. We’ll need fire support; otherwise they will immediately knock me out. The marines are all equipped with legendary gear, I assume? I can carry about thirty men in my holds. We will break through to the flight deck and blow the ship up from the inside.” My inner pirate child was already looking forward to the next adventure and would not forgive me if I missed out.
“Great. Fly over to me, the men are already ready. Plan to close on the right, but stay behind. The main cannons are located in front.”
“Kiddo, I hesitate to ask, how did you determine where the Zatrathi front and back is?” To my uninitiated eyes the Zatrathi ships had neither bows nor sterns like my orbship.
“Once you lay into them several times with some high-caliber weaponry, you’ll figure it out. The blue lights there are their bow; their fighter hangers are on their flanks. Any other questions?”
“Will you take my guys? Bones is itching for some hand-to-tentacle combat,” Gammon interrupted. “He will come in useful.”
“No more than two and they have thirty seconds to get ready. Marina, I’ll head to you first,” I replied, turning towards Alexandria. At this moment, the Zatrathi ship fired another spread of torpedoes. Maneuvering among the beam cannons and carefully destroying the deadly missiles, I sidled up to the cruiser. The marines were already waiting in open space. Holding onto each other like kids in kindergarten, the living chain floated into my hold. It was harder to fit Bones and his partner in the crammed space, but I’d never promised anyone five-star accommodations either.
“Brainiac, do you have any idea of where their bridge might be?” I asked my ship computer. But the snake answered in his stead:
“No. It could be located in any of the spires as well as in the internal compartments with equal probability.”
“I see. Everybody get ready. We’re going in. Fire support only at my command!”
I flew up as close as possible to the shield, inviting the enemy to attack me. The Zatrathi did not need to be asked twice—a salvo of torpedoes rushed in my direction as well as in the direction of our fighters.
“Full throttle back!” the engineer ordered and a torpedo came flying out of Warlock. The snake’s distinguishing feature wasn’t greed but thrift over the ordnance entrusted to her care. If she decided to part with a torpedo, it meant that there was good reason for it, and the Zatrathi would suffer the maximum possible damage from the shot. Our side’s torpedoes did not allow the beam cannons of the Zatrathi to destroy mine, which played into our hands. Heeding the engineer’s order, we hurled abruptly away from the Zatrathi. At the same moment, my torpedo’s fuse ended its countdown and the missile exploded in the midst of the Zatrathi. Since most of the warheads fired by the bombers were aimed at me, they could not avoid the explosion. The enemy’s torpedoes detonated in a chain reaction, trapping the Zatrathi pilots.
“Wonderful!” Brainiac reacted to the outcome of the maneuver that had cleared the way to the Zatrathi ship.
“Cover us!” I ordered into the comm and Warlock rushed forward at full thrust. Everyone who was on the ship felt the EM blast, but Brainiac handled it well—the reactor came back up in a split second. The auxiliary power unit worked perfectly.
“Gunner, clear the way for us!” I flew right up to the hull and the orangutan swept away the black clumps of antennae and radar dishes with fire from our beam cannons.
“The package is out for delivery,” said the snake, referring to the torpedo, but then immediately hissed angrily: “They’ve intercepted it. They’re deflecting it. Those package thieving bastards!”
The second torpedo came too close to the hull, and the Zatrathi did not dare to use their point defense cannons, wary of further damaging their own hull. Instead, they launched their version of the flycatcher and simply guided the missile away. The timer finished counting down and the warhead detonated in a brief fiery inferno. A damaged spire appeared ahead of us surrounded by repair ships. A jungle of scaffolding filled the intervening space.
“I have sight of the LZ. Gunner, make us a passage.”
All of a sudden something shook our ship.
“They’re trying to trap us with tractor beams, like a torpedo,” the snake explained. “The active protection is working but we won’t last long. It’s time, Cap’n! They’re about to hit us with their EM. Our shields will dissolve and then we’re as good as dead.”
“Copy. Marina, where are you?”
“Relax. We’re here,” came an unfamiliar male voice and a fighter flew past me. The player banked sharply, unloading all the elo in his beam cannons—and then rammed the Zatrathi hull at full throttle. The hull gave in and spewed debris into open space. That which could not be opened with beam weapons, could be rammed, opening a way in for us.
“Get the Precians to reimburse your pilot,” I advised Kiddo, flying through the opened passage. The gunner was blissfully pouring plasma onto anything around us and updates about my mission for Hilvar kept flashing before my eyes. A squadron of Zatrathi fighters left the ship on a course to intercept us. But they came to their senses just in time.
“Torpedoes away,” announced the snake, and the surface of the nearest spire exploded into a ball of fire. The munitions had reached their target. Enough time to assess the diversion and make a decision. I banked and was about to crash through the still burning opening. The engineers were close at hand and no doubt there was already some troops waiting for us—unless that part of the ship was completely isolated from its main areas. I decided to break through on the other side.
“Where are you going?!” I did not have time to answer Kiddo as Warlock gnawed into the insides of the Zatrathi ship. If it weren’t for my seatbelt, I would have been flattened against the wall of my cabin. The ship was shaking, the lights went out and sprays of sparks were raining all around us. There was a terrible screech and I began to worry that my ship wouldn’t survive the landing. Or the marines. But after a couple of seconds, everything went quiet.
“Is everyone okay? Go! Go! Go!” I yelled, swallowing, to moisten my throat which had gone dry from excitement. The maneuver had not come easy to my ship: The anti-EM paneling had suffered greatly and all the external sensors had been lopped off as Brainiac hadn’t had time to retract them. Without them, Warlock was deaf, blind and dumb. But at least the raiding party had reached the dungeon.
“Engineer, commence emergency repairs. Spare no supplies,” I ordered and opened the hold. The marines were all there, healthy, locked and ready. Pouring out, they scrambled to take up their positions.
“Brainiac, start hacking the local network! Gunner, cover the entrance. Don’t let anyone get close.”
“Set up a perimeter,” a male voice came on the air. “We’ll take it from here, Surgeon.”
“I have connected to the network. I am sending you a map of the spire we are in. I have located the communications relay to the mainframe. Plotting a route now.”
“I have received the map, thank you! Squads one and two move forward. Squad three maintain overwatch.”
“I can overwatch myself; don’t waste your men. I have thirty droids on board.”
“Roger. Squad three—the lower three decks are yours. Squad one—you have the central three decks. Squad two—the top three decks. Safeties off and don’t hoard the powercells if things get hot. Let’s go!”
It was pleasant to observe the marines’ well-coordinated boarding procedure. Kiddo’s assault team specialized in ship-to-ship combat—they weren’t so fit for surface action. Each of the marines had a directional shield integrated into his armor. His flanks were supposed to be covered either by a fellow marine or a wall. Even my scant knowledge was enough to understand that they wouldn’t be able to fight very effectively in the open.
Bones and his partner were asked to open the doors and advanced after the landing party, choosing the central decks. They had already accomplished their main purpose—the Precian adviser had witnessed them enter the Zatrathi vessel. As always, the guild’s business came first.
“Surgeon, I have to go with you,” the adviser reminded me. “I must see the Zatrathi ship with my own eyes!”
“So go see it,” I said without much protest. “Brainiac, send out the droids and the marine. Tell them to look for the nearest stockpile. Detail two droids to guard the adviser!”
“Acknowledged,” the ship computer replied. “I have located a resource stockpile. According to the primary analysis, the length of the route will be one and a half kilometers. Access is through the third, fourth or fifth decks. There is a complex system of corridors here. Precise calculations will take a long time.”
While the special forces were capturing the ship, I could plunder some gear and resources from the Zatrathi.
“How far is it as the crow flies?” I asked.
Brainiac sent me a simplified map of the ship. The treachery of the Zatrathi seemed evident in the corridors’ myriad twists and turns and dead ends.
“Two hun-hun-dred meters,” Brainiac replied with a little stutter. The slizosaur had begun repairing the ship. “Shall I run a detailed analysis of the co-co-corridor system?”
“No. It has been designed to make life complicated for people like us. Think of it as the labyrinth of the Minotaur.” Let the devs think that they’ve stumped us, while I think of some other way to do this. “Send the rhino. We’ll head along deck four. We’ll see if he can break through the wall.”
The marine went rushing out of Warlock’s hull and slammed straight into the wall. The metal panels gave way, opening a passage to the neighboring corridor.
