Among Enemies, page 27
part #9 of On Silver Wings Series
Sienele grimaced, but tipped his head to acknowledge the point. The Ross had shown some variable energy in their acceleration since the destruction of the cruiser, likely from their attempts to repair the damage as well as from damaged sections wearing out under the stress of their ongoing pursuit.
The effects of the gravity valve on local spacetime had actually slipped his thoughts, but it was an obvious variable that would be difficult to account for. Even from the significant distance between them and the Upwind the small transport had felt a pull back toward the gravity sink used to destroy the cruiser.
They were firing everything they had, pushing as hard as possible to get to the Jump Point, but in the end, they were only going to find out if it was enough when they actually got there... or when they didn't.
He examined the scans of the Ross vessel, making sure to get as much data on it as possible. The Parithalians hadn't developed the negative matter warheads during the war, and for obvious reasons had not had any chance to use them on the Ross since. A lot of people would be very interested in the level of damage they'd managed to inflict.
Which was extensive, to be fair to the Parithalian efforts. The ship looked like it had been ravaged by some insane beast, with deep scars tore through the hull and exposing the inner infrastructure of the vessel to space along great swaths of the previous clean white ship.
Unfortunately, it hadn't been enough to destroy it, nor even disable it. The damage had been crippling, to some extent, but clearly not enough.
It would appear that the damage it primarily superficial, along the exterior of the hull or a few decks deep. An obvious issue with negative matter warheads, they are hardly capable of doing anything other than reacting with whatever is closest.
It would be something that the Pari designers would have to improve on, he supposed.
During the war, the humans scored several kills on the Ross. I wonder what weapons they used to do so?
He would have to look that up, assuming he got back to his office and had access to the Alliance intelligence systems ever again.
A proximity alarm shook him from his thoughts, and Sienele's gaze shifted to the navigation system.
It was outdated by modern Alliance standards, of course, but still quite serviceable, and he could see that they'd just entered the outer perimeter of the plotted Jump Point.
"Finally," He hissed.
"Do not be so excited," Kriss warned him. "We need to get in deeper, our jump drive isn't... well, it is not new, let us be charitable and leave it at that."
Sienele snorted.
As the Lucian had stated, calling it 'not new' was being charitable. The old Parithalian ship they were using had one of the earliest model drives he'd ever heard of, one that he was honestly shocked was still in service. Though, selling off old ones to primitives like those on the two human colonies within Alliance space made some sense in that regard, he supposed.
"And the Ross are almost in range. This will be tight."
*****
The conclave once more shifted focus, a warning alarm demanding that they turn some attention to the situation in the system they were originally tasked with handling rather than deal exclusively with the rampant human. Relaying on compressed time to provide them with as much of, well time, as they needed, they examined the course of the target vessel attempting to escape the Alliance Production system.
They are nearing the coordinates for initiating a jump. That must not occur. Calculations for intercept?
Interception will be too late... marginally.
Marginally late is still late. Options.
The minds set to determining various scenarios and the potential each would have, played out in simulations.
Disrupt the jump point.
That caused them to pause, shifting focus to the speaker.
Interesting. Before or during their Jump?
That question set the group back. Disrupting a jump point during a jump transition was a good way to establish a little death by accident, but only if you had the time to ensure the calculations, such as their original plan for the Alliance cruiser. Without that time, it was possible that the ship would wind up merely at the wrong jump point upon exit, or perhaps somewhere in deep space.
Unacceptable risk. We cannot determine if we will be close enough for a proper disruption during the jump, likely they would survive. Disrupt before, then destroy them before it can reform.
Agreed.
The orders were issued.
Scans were analyzed quickly, taking in the gravitational sources of the system and the waves that were entering from outside the system, their interactions creating the jump points in the first place. A quick calculation was made on the best placement to temporarily disrupt the point and the ship's gravity valve was aimed and loosed upon local space time.
*****
Parithalian Transport
Acceleration alarms screamed as the ship was abruptly yanked off course by an anomalous gravity source.
"We're being fired upon," Sienele concluded, tension filling his body.
"No, that wasn't even close," Kriss said calmly. "It's worse than that."
"Worse? How?" Sienele leaned in as Kriss tapped a display in front of him with a single talon.
"We're no longer reading as being within the outer rim of the Jump point... we're no longer reading the jump point at all."
"How is that even possible?" one of the Lucians blurted from behind them.
"Disrupting a jump point is theoretical to Alliance research, but with enough twisting of spacetime, it should be... and obviously can be done," Sienele said grimly. "No one realized that the Ross had that much power.
"We are dead," Kriss said. "We cannot outrun them now."
Sienele grimaced, looking away from the screens. He knew it was true, there wasn't much they could do now, not with their only means of escaping the star system cut off entirely.
"Make them earn the kill."
Kriss and Sienele looked at one another, then back to the speaker, the same Lucian who had been shocked by the fact that the jump point had vanished. They nodded slowly.
"Agreed," Kriss said, turning back, his smile returning slowly. "Make them earn the kill."
*****
Portal Ship
The Conclave watched as the jump point vanished, moving away from the current location so quickly as to be faster than the speed of information, if only technically. It would be back, soon enough, but the gravity pulse would buy them sufficient time to accomplish their task.
The old Alliance transport didn't have the speed to outrun the vessel, not even damaged as it was, particularly not with the vastly superior starting speed they had before the Alliance cruiser had damaged them.
It was only a matter of time, and the conclave knew that the people on that ship had to be aware of it.
So, they were mildly surprised when the ship began evasive maneuvering, cutting away at an oblique angle. The maneuver would tax the drives significantly to match, but they turned and followed.
There would be no witnesses.
*****
Parithalian Transport
"They are following," Sienele said. "Acceleration... dropping. Still not low enough for us to escape, unfortunately."
"Escape is a fools dream, if we had proper weapons, I would at least add to the damage they had to repair before we died," Kriss growled. "Instead I will settle for making them work for our deaths."
Sienele nodded, one eye tracking the pursuing ship while he focused some of his attention on the impossible effect the Ross had just managed to create.
As he'd told the Lucian, disrupting a Jump Point was believed to be possible by the Alliance, but none of the space warping technology in common use was anywhere near the potency believed to be needed. Indeed, no one in the Alliance believed that the Ross even had such power behind their systems, given the vast scale that Jumps were formed under.
It took the interplay between multiple stars, planets, and special stellar phenomenon, all in a balance to create one.
Destroying one should be beyond the power of any species, even the Ross.
The very idea was bothering him deeply, which was why he was taking time to try and work out just what had happened. Likely he would die before figuring it out and, even if not, he would never get to tell anyone, but if he worked it out at least he wouldn't die with that itch scratching at his brain.
The transport's scanners were old, but they were robust enough that they hadn't been shut down by the gravity pulse releasing. Newer models would have done so in order to avoid damage, but it seemed that they'd been far enough away from it to have avoided that... though Sienele wouldn't be shocked if the instrument cluster had lost a few thousand cycles off its life from the wear all the same.
They'd held up in the moment, though, and that was all that mattered to him just then. Crunching the numbers was taking an eternity, however.
Blast this old computational system, I can't believe anyone ever traveled the stars with this little computing power.
The model he was running was forming up, though, based on the scanner data.
"What are you doing?" Kriss growled, "I'm showing the computers running eighty percent over peak!"
"Is it affecting your ability to avoid the Ross?" Sienele asked, tensing.
Kriss snorted, "Hardly. We are limited to picking a direction and flying in it as fast as we can. Takes little computer power to manage, thankfully."
"Then don't worry about it," Sienele responded. "I'm just scratching an itch that I would rather not die with."
Kriss laughed, "I cannot blame you there. Unfortunately, any itches I carry can only be scratched with a blaster, and I have no targets I want dead by my hand within my personal range."
The other Lucians grumbled in agreement with that, leaving Sienele to continue his work. His eyes widened as he suddenly saw what had happened.
They didn't destroy the jump point... they... chased it away?
He threw the computer display away from him, letting it swing back into its place and lock into the console as he lunged out of the chair and reached over Kriss to change their course.
"What are you doing!? That will let them catch us earlier!"
*****
Alliance transport has altered course. Estimate to intercept revised down eight percent.
The conclave blinked metaphorically at that announcement. It was not a particularly difficult calculation to make, working out the best course to draw out the engagement for as long as possible, and yet somehow the beasts from the Alliance had managed to get it wrong.
Mildly surprising in some ways, completely unsurprising in others.
Recalculate engagement formulae, engage when ready.
Formulae calculated, engagement window opening... now.
Prepare to fire.
Warning! Jump Point is returning, the course places the...
The conclave watched as the jump point intersected the Alliance transport's position as it tracked back through space toward its original location and the transport's Jump Drive flared once before the ship vanished from local space time.
They jumped from a moving Jump Point. That is not something even we would do.
Impressive, if also insane and likely suicidal... but impressive.
Can they be tracked?
Negative.
The following formulae that was spoken was as foul as anything ever imagined from any species before.
*****
Chapter Twenty-Six
Portal Ship, Alliance World Arkhana
Trying to smoke me out, Sorilla thought as she was forced to move out ahead of the advancing security detail. Smart.
Without using the advanced scanner she'd stolen from them it was considerably more difficult to stay clear of the enemy movements, but she was managing thus far. What was more of a problem, however, was that they were succeeding in keeping her away from the drive core.
The Ross had clearly worked out her strategy, or at least her immediate goals, which was going to be a problem.
Sorilla ducked down an empty corridor, one that looked like every other empty corridor she'd seen ad nauseum over the last little bit, this time managing to get a little closer to her target. It was clear that she wasn't going to be able to get there entirely undetected, the enemy security was moving around in far to great number for that.
She just needed to pick the best possible time for exposing her position, so that she could try to get the best results from her actions possible. That was, of course, far easier said than done, but as her buddies in the Teams liked to say... the only easy day, was yesterday.
She came to a stop at a junction corridor, and knew that there were security forces not to far beyond. They weren't remotely as quiet as she suspected they might wish to be, but she wasn't going to be complaining.
The drive core was one deck down, almost directly under her, and the ramp to that deck was just on the other side of the security.
No way I'm sneaking through...
Sorilla gritted her teeth under the helm. Her body was sore, her mind and body both were tired, and she just wanted this to be over. It wasn't going to end, however, until either she, or they, ended it.
Sorilla was determined to make the ending on her terms. One way, or the other.
She was already moving when she re-activated the scanner, her muscles screaming at her in protest as she began a loping run that slowly turned into a full sprint. The sound of the security coming to alert was almost on her before she got the first images back through the scanner, fed directly into her brain by her implants.
One at the corridor, swinging to intercept...
Sorilla dropped into a slide as she slid out of the side corridor, the big Golem's swinging fist passing right by overhead as she fired two heavy blasts up into it's joints as she passed.
She heard metal and ceramic crack, but was already moving on before she could see the results of the pass.
Goblins, bringing their pulse weapons around. They're charging to fire... doubt they have any safeties currently running.
She sat up as she slid, leveling the weapon at the line of enemy mechanoids, and fired a continuous stream of warp pulses, tearing the line to pieces before they could fully orient to strike at her.
Sorilla could feel a dozen more Goblins turning on her from other directions, though, and their weapons were preparing to discharge.
More targets converging on the area of operation, she noted dispassionately as the signals filtered through her brain. They'll saturate the entire area with fire in less than two seconds. Nothing will survive.
She didn't pause as she moved from sitting to standing, her feet back under her and pumping hard to keep moving. She threw herself forward into a dive as the world behind her exploded in a chaotic mass of warped spacetime even as she vanished down the ramp, sliding along the deck, and tumbled out onto the floor below.
Sorilla killed her scanner, hoping it might delay them a bit if they thought she'd been killed in the attack.
Probably wouldn't, but she could hope if nothing else.
*****
The conclave didn't even have time to blink, despite being in a compressed time field.
The assault had happened so quickly and been over so fast in turn, that from the time it began to when the area had been saturated with fire was only a few moments even for them.
Is she dead?
Scanner has been deactivated. Area is currently unscannable due to interference from the weapon discharges. Unknown.
Subject Entropy is alive until we have her body in our custody. Bring in more security to replace the ones we lost.
Lost to our own fire.
Irrelevant. If it ends Entropy, it is worth it. Has the core been secured?
Several security detachments are there now, more are on their way.
That would be a no, then.
*****
Sorilla edged around the corner, looking at the enemy formations through her suit sensors, mostly leaning on the secondary visual gear rather than the primaries that were mounted roughly in line with her own eyes.
The core was just beyond the next line of security, but frankly she was running out of tricks. The enemy weren't exactly hyper skilled, but they did learn from the past and they were disciplined beyond anything she'd ever want to see in actual living soldiers.
The mechanoid part of the equation coming out, of course.
She took a few breaths, easing her tension somewhat, and winced as the deep throbbing pain returned.
When in motion, the pain tended to be pushed down, but it was coming back stronger, and faster, every time she slowed down. Sorilla knew that if she didn't end this soon, she was going to stop one of these times and just not be able to start again.
Pain might be weakness leaving the body, but that didn't help much when your body was generating plenty of weakness to spare.
Oh lord, what I wouldn't do for a remote drone with a shaped charge or twelve.
That wasn't in the books, unfortunately, which meant that she was going to have to improvise.
Sorilla found an access panel near on the doors, like the ones she used to fry the door control circuits and pried it off with her armor shod fingers. She wasn't looking for the door controls, however. Instead, she looked for a larger source of power.
The corridors were well lit, with more than just visible light, she'd noticed. Her armor and cybernetics didn't require much light but unless she wanted to use projection systems, which would certainly give her position away to anyone with the right senses, she needed some.
She was willing to bet that the enemy was in much the same boat in that regard, otherwise the ship wouldn't have lighting in the first place.
Finding the power conduit, Sorilla pried it out and managed to break open the protective covering. Keeping her hands well away from the open flow, she found another conduit and repeated the process before deftly looping the pair and ducking out of the way.
She wasn't really well versed in how the Ross power management system worked, but in her experience with human systems it was pretty rare that power systems reacted well to being shorted out in such a way, and as it turned out she wasn't disappointed this time either.
