Into the Black

(Main Bridge, BSN Hades, outside the Thraki Bubble, Hellspace)

“Range to enemy fleet?”

“Roughly one point eight billion kilometers and closing.”

“Enemy fighters?”

“Entering weapons range in thirty seconds. Thirty-six percent of the fighters and bombers have already gone dead-stick, or veered off course.”

Captain Nesterin Zyllen nodded, grimly. That was the expected result when you sent in small craft with no shields into Hellspace. It was probably only because the Ihm had submitted to their new Goddess that the casualties weren’t greater.

Not that it would help those pilots when he fired the Hades’s main gun.

“Status of the generators?”

“Ninety-five percent. Full power in ten seconds, Captain.”

“Tactical, have you picked a target?”

“Yes, Captain. Tango 80 looks like the flagship. You can see it there, sitting in the middle of the combined armada, with a bunch of other superdreadnoughts around it like a shell.”

Zyllen looked at the targeting data on the ship in question. The Ihm fleet either wasn’t broadcasting IFF codes, or Hellspace was interfering with things again, but his tactical officer was right. Tango 80 was in the absolute center of the formation, which was based off the standard Ihm Hardened Shell protective fleet stance he’d been trained to recognize.

Thanks to Commodore Dakha and her defecting crews, Black Star knew a lot about the standard formations and maneuvers that the Ihm Armada was trained in. While they did not have IFF codes, since those would have been changed long ago, it did mean that they could, with some degree of accuracy, pick out the key ships in any formation. Especially when they went to one of the default formations, like the Hardened Shell formation.

The Hardened Shell looked much like the name implied, with the ships forming a layered defense in three dimensions, with the flagship or other high value targets in the geometric center. The formation was meant to be used when dealing with unknown threats, protecting the leaders as best as possible. The thinking was that, if the leaders weren’t getting blown up, that they could react easier to the unknown threats, and that, if the threat was big enough, then they might survive long enough to escape, so that the combat data could be analyzed for weaknesses when the next armada met that threat, or one like it.

Not that it would do them any good.

“All crew prepare for primary weapon’s fire!”

(Fleet Command Cluster, IAS Shield of Faith, outside the Anomaly, the Godsrealm)

High Warleader Urzo Hakzex’s tail twitched as she looked at the sensor readings from the massive ship that was approaching her armada. It was obviously a Black Star ship, even if it didn’t look anything like Black Star’s normal ships. The massive gun at the bow of the ship was a telltale sign. It was practically the signature of any Black Star warship to have a big gun of some kind running along the ship’s centerline.

She was half-convinced that it was some form of compensation for a mental defect in the company’s owner. It fit with the profile that some of the intelligence analysts put together. Knowing that the Nomads project themselves here, it stood to reason that, perhaps, the owner of Black Star acted as he did because it was something he could not do in his other life. Regardless of whether that was true, the guns they’d used on their other ship types, even down to the battleship cannons on the little gunboats they used, made it so that all Black Star ships could take on foes far stronger than they ought to.

And she was certain that it was that big gun was currently responsible for giving off the very concerning energy readings she was seeing. Already, it was gathering the kind of energy that one would expect to see in a coronal mass ejections or pulsars. Energy levels like that, when presented by stellar phenomenon, were interesting. When they were building up inside the hull of a warship, that was worrisome, to say the least. When that warship had a large cannon on the front of it, it became far more than just worrisome.

“All ships, go to formation Kitha-Chax-Five! Radius two hundred thousand kilometers on the centerline from target ship.”

The Kitha-Chax series of maneuvers were designed for avoiding things like stellar phenomenon, but they had been updated as a defensive formation against kinetic weapons strikes, thanks to the Black Stars bringing heavy kinetics back as a viable weapon of naval combat. The fact that the same defense (namely, ‘get out of the way’) worked for both stellar phenomenon and rounds moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light was a nice bonus, that made retraining blessedly short, if it was needed at all. The big weakness of kinetics in space combat was that, if you got out of their path, then the shots were completely useless.

Even as her ships opened up the cylindrical hole in their formation, the High Warleader held her breath, overcome with a sudden disquieting thought. The Black Stars had to know the weakness of their weapons. They were not fools, for all that they refused to see the purity of the Goddess, and stood to oppose the Ihm’s rightful ascension as the Perfected rulers of the galaxy. They knew that the massive gun, while impressive, was easily avoided, especially at these ranges.

So why were they still preparing to fire? Was it a trick? Something to pull her ships out of position? A bluff to make her retreat, so that they could rescue the Black Stars still within the Anomaly? What did the ship hope to accomplish?

(Main Bridge, BSN Hades, outside the Thraki Bubble, Hellspace)

Zyllen sat upright in his command chair. This was the first time that the Hades would fire its main gun. Even in tests, they had only done partial trials, testing the power connections. The bridge recorders were running. If this worked, it would get played across the fleet. If it didn’t, well, it would still get played across the fleet, whatever was left of it.

“Aspect change in target! Tango 80 and the fleet have adjusted position. They’ve opened a gap in their formation, straight through the middle, along our trajectory.”

“Are they still in range?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Prepare to fire! Shima, initiate temporal engine!”

There were a couple looks from the bridge crew at him addressing the tactical officer by his first name. It was a little unprofessional, but they had known each other for some time. A bit of rapport made the crew’s morale better. The tactical officer just smiled. “Roger.”

In the depths of the ship, a point of energy began concentrating between two massive collectors, held in check by magnetic containment as it began glowing brighter and brighter. Turbines spun, channeling the energy, preparing it. Beyond a panel of safety glass, in the reactor control room, the Chief Engineer nodded, pride in his voice. “That’s it. Good boy!”

On the bridge, the ship began shuddering. Commander Aenorin’s eyes went wide, recognizing something. “This is…”

Captain Zyllen nodded. “That’s right. The Hades.”

“Fighters 15000 kilometers!”

“Point defense engaging.”

“Sanada. We will now test the Temporal Motion Gun. Target is the enemy fleet.”

The science officer frowned. “It’s not checked yet. Well, I think we can fire it.”

“It is our best chance,” Zyllen said, wryly. “Make it work.”

“Yes, Sir.” He turned to look at the XO, who was standing in for the Weapons Officer due to the skeleton crew. “Commander, you’ve read the manual?”

“Sort of.” Aenorin looked uncomfortable. “But it is a Lost Tech weapon. I’ve never fired one before.”

Zyllen just sat there, stoically. “Well, it’s do or die.”

“Incoming missiles!”

“Point defense prioritizing missile defense.”

Captain Zyllen opened a line to the reactor room. “Raise temporal-motion engine pressure. Close emergency valves.”

The Chief Engineer answered. “Raising temporal-motion engine pressure. Closing emergency valves.”

The ball of energy grew brighter.

“Open temporal-gun outlet.”

“Opening outlet.”

On the bridge, one of the crew called out, “Chamber pressure rising!”

“All energy to temporal-motion gun. Initiate forced induction.” A second engineer could be heard in the background, acknowledging the order.

Doors opened inside the ship, clearing the barrel of the gun as the gun was primed and readied. On the bridge, the Captain said, “Prepare to fire.” Then, he looked at the tactical officer. “Shima, let Aenorin do it.”

The tactical officer nodded to the XO. “It’s all yours.” A quick thumbs up from the XO, and the tactical officer took his hands from the controls.

The Captain took a breath. “Release temporal-motion gun safety.”

Aenorin began punching controls on her console. “Releasing. Safety locks at zero. Pressure approaching firing point. Releasing final safety.”

The navigator adjusted his glasses as he looked at the readout. “Hades on target trajectory.”

“Lock on that.” Aenorin breathed. “Raising scope.”

A control raised up out of her console, shaped vaguely like a gun, with a handle and a trigger. At the end of the ‘barrel’ a screen folded up, becoming a targeting display.

“Contrast gauge at brightness 20. Target: locked.”

“Fighters, range 1800!

“Energy at 100 percent.”

Aenorin’s finger hovered over the trigger.

“Wait.” Zyllen said, calmness in his voice.

“Energy at 120 percent!”

“Chamber limit!”

Zyllen barked out commands. “10 seconds to firing. Brace for shock and flash.”

The bridge crew all obediently put on protective eyeware that had been included in their uniforms for bridge duty. At the bow of the ship, light began drawing in towards the port that opened in the gun’s muzzle. It seemed to be gathering, twisting together.

“Fighters range 7000. Collision course!”

Aenorin focused on the targeting scope. “Five… Four… Three…” She gripped the targeting scope with both hands, stabilizing it. “Two… One… Firing!” She pulled the trigger.

Deep in the ship, in the barrel of the massive gun, a massive reactor chamber slammed forward, forcing the energy to critical mass, and giving it direction. At the bow, a brilliant white light blasted out of the gun, expanding to the point where it was almost as wide as a freighter, though still contained upon a linear path.

The blast passed directly through the hole in the enemy fleet’s formation. As large and as powerful as the beam was, it was still bound by physics, even in hellspace. It could not turn and chase the flagship.

Fortunately, the flagship was never the target. Zyllen was no fool, and had no intention of wasting his shots. The beam continued on, until it struck the edge of the barrier that formed the Thraki Bubble, unleashing all of its fury upon it.

For a moment, everything went still.

And then everything went white.

(Flag Bridge, BSN Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, orbiting Thraki, Eye of Despair)

“INCOMING TEMPORAL SHOCKWAVE!”

Hearing Raven’s warning, I called out, “All ships, all power to shields and hull integrity! BRACE FOR IMPACT!”

The invisible barrier we knew was there suddenly glowed white hot, and then shattered, breaking and burning away in a rippling wave that spread across the bubble. All ships were turned into the blast wave as it hit us. Even the mighty battleships and carriers were tossed about. The corvettes had it the worst, but they survived. The gunboats and Marine Crows would have been utterly destroyed, if not for the fact that Bennie’s warning had allowed us to dock them with the larger battleships and carriers, resting inside their shields.”

I managed to not get thrown out of my chair, but it was a close thing. “Report!”

Raven’s voice sounded shaken when she replied. “All ships accounted for. Damage is light to moderate across the fleet. The… the bubble is gone, Admiral. And that’s not all!”

“What?”

“I’m detecting no Hellspace energies, nor the radiation that was causing the soulsheering.”

“Are we back in realspace?”

“Negative. But we may as well be. The energies of Hellspace have been pushed back for a light-month, I believe, but it is closing in again. Estimated time until Hellspace recovery, 22 minutes.”

“Status of the Hades, and the Ihm?”

“Hades reporting power fluctuations and blown couplings across half the ship. Temporal-motion gun is offline, but the ship itself is still 75% combat capable. Ihm fleet is not on scanners. No debris detected.”

She paused, and then said, “I’m detecting explosions on the planet below. The alien planetship may have suffered feedback damage from the attack.”

“Status of the Anchor drives?”

“Usable. All ships in the main fleet has them charged. Hades reporting that excess energy from the main reactor which had been used to charge the temporal-motion gun already charging the Anchor drive for a single jump. They will be ready to jump in 15 minutes.”

“Very well then. When the Hades is ready, we will jump as a fleet to the Amazon system. Just in case anyone or anything decides to follow us back.”

“As you command, Admiral.”

I took a breath, and said, “My compliments to Captain Zyllen for his timely intervention. Remind me to invite him and his bridge crew to dinner, when we get back to Star’s Reach.”

“As you wish.”