Regina unhooked herself and walked forward, sitting down in the co-pilots seat and looking out the front window as she strapped herself in again. She saw the missiles flying toward the formation, or at least what she assumed were missiles. They didn't have the same signature as anything that she'd ever seen before and they were moving a hell of a lot faster.
"Someone get a lock on them!" Pots called out, voice harsh.
"I'm trying, but nothing is happening. It's like the computers can't see them!" Someone called back.
"God damn it, someone just aim then," Pots replied.
Immediately a few trial shots were sent out, trying to intercept the missiles coming after them. The missiles avoided everything that was sent at them. Smart missiles. Regina cussed under her breath. Something that could avoid other missiles fired at them would definitely lock onto a target and follow them until hit.
Regina hit her comms link. "Someone in one of the new ships, use one of the new weapons, everyone else save their shots until they're closer."
A few ships around them fired again, the new weapons easily avoiding friendly ships and flying out towards the enemy. Regina held her breath, waiting. They looked like they were on a crash course, she hoped they were on a crash course. She watched as they flew closer and closer, until suddenly they stopped. Regina blinked once, twice, not believing what she was seeing as the missiles that her ships had fired turned back on them and flew the way they came.
"What the hell just happened?" Regina barked out.
"They've turned against us, Captain. We lost control of them and now they're targeting us."
"How is that even possible?"
No one answered her.
"Evasive action, take out the ships that are firing these damn things and then we won't have to worry about anymore projectiles."
Ships scattered easily, engines blasting out, bright in the dark black of space. Regina felt the ship jerk under her and turned to see Swan doing her damn best to get the transport to maintain standard evasive maneuvers. They didn't have the protection of the pack now. Regina swallowed hard. They were the slowest ship out here. They would need a miracle.
Regna grabbed the controls. "Let go Swan, I've got the wheel," she bit out.
"Why don't you focus on commanding. I've got this."
"Shut up you idiot, I was a pilot for twenty years. If anyone is going to get us out of this, it will be me."
"No offense, your majesty, but when was the last time you were in the cockpit?" Swan banked hard right and Regina could feel the engines of the ship straining to keep up.
"Last fucking week, now let me have the damn controls before I have to knock you out, Swan!"
Swan growled but let go of the wheel and Regina pulled them out of the turn quickly, engaging the lifters and gaining altitude quickly. She looked over the screens, hoping against hope that nothing was tailing them and that none of her ships were around them. She spun them around and shot off the other direction. It was absolute chaos. Regina felt sweat trickling down her back, gathering on her palms.
"For God's sake does anyone have a lock on the enemy ships yet?" She barked out.
No one answered her, too wrapped up in their own maneuvers to reply. She let out another string of curses.
"Mal, if anyone on that damn ship wants to be of use anytime soon I'm sure we'd all fucking appreciate it!" She spun them around again, zig zagging as best she could in the damn ship that was little more than a tin can.
"Commander De Vil has been trying to get a clear shot on the enemy ships but with everyone moving around it's been impossible," Mal responded, a lot calmer than Regina.
Regina cursed a few more times just for the hell of it. And of course they couldn't use the new weapons that wouldn't hit friendly ships because whoever the hell was fighting against them could take control of them and turn them right back around. Great. Just fucking great.
"Find a god damn way! And for the love of god tell me that you have the shields up." Another sharp turn and one of the fighters just barely missed clipping them. Regina's breath rushed out all at once. At some point they were going to get hit if this didn't end soon. Utter chaos did not lend well to safe flying.
"Got one!" Someone crowed over the comm link. Regina saw the flash of fire a second later.
"How many are left?" She asked, looking out at the blast.
"Five," another person called. "I've almost got a lock on one, slippery bastards. Bitch your mine—" The transmission cut off in midsentence and there was another flash of fire. They'd lost their first soldier.
Regina gritted her teeth and kept the ship moving. Two days into the mission. She had to be the worst captain ever to lose someone two days into the mission. This was the enemies fault, she knew, but still there was guilt gnawing at her brain. If she hadn't commanded the drones to be sent out when she did, if she hadn't issued the command to pursue the ship, if, if, if. She growled.
The controls were ripped from her hands and the ship sank drastically a millisecond later. Regina felt the rumble of a ship passing overhead, missing them by inches. She jerked up to look at Swan with angry eyes.
"What the hell was that?" She asked, ripping the controls back and starting to steer once again.
"That was me saving our asses from being killed because you were too damn distracted to check your fucking screens. Jesus Christ, lady, why don't you say thank you like a normal person?" Swan said, sitting back in her chair and glaring at Regina.
"I will thank you when your help is asked for. I have this perfectly under control," Regina sniffed.
"Fucking right, sure you do. Why don't we just ask those two how handled you had it while they had their lives flashing before their eyes." She gestured over her shoulder to the two science officers in the back of the transport.
Regina didn't even bother to look. She had better things to do right now than to give into the whims of some warrant officer who had no idea what it really took to run a ship like this. She could lecture Regina on how to fix the damn engines, nothing else.
"Another one down!"
Regina swallowed. Four more to go. The battlefield in front of her was hazy with missiles and ships flying every which way. Surely those damn ships had to be running out of missiles. There were so many flying around that Regina didn't know how such a payload was possible. They were going to have a hell of a time getting back to the ship when this was all said and done just from the missiles.
One missile exploded right in front of them. Regina angled the nose down and the ship dived steeply. She hoped that the science officers in the back had refreshed their motion training before this mission. She did not want to have to deal with someone choking on their own vomit right now. Or better yet, she would send Swan since she had things to do.
Regina had to keep turning quickly to avoid other ships put in their course by the sudden dive. She cursed until she wasn't even sure what she was saying anymore, but it made her feel just the slightest bit better so she didn't care. More sweat dripped down her back and she felt absolutely disgusting at this point, but it didn't matter. If she survived this then there would be a shower in her future. If she didn't it wouldn't matter.
And then they were right in front of one of the enemy ships. Regina had never seen anything like it. It looked like one of their fighters had been morphed and remolded into something wholly new. She could see the elements of the original ship, but that was about all. And there was no cockpit, none. There were no windows at all. Regina couldn't even see where someone would get into the damn thing.
Unless there wasn't actually anyone in it. They had just gotten off a ship left stranded by a bunch of AI gone rouge. What was the likelihood that they had somehow evolved enough to create a ship like the one that was in front of her? It was fast, but then again AI didn't have to adhere to rules of reproduction like humans did and five years could mean a thousand different generations. And if that was true, God above they might be screwed.
"They're AI!" Regina shouted across the comm link as she sent the ship into another dive to get under the enemy ship, praying all along that the damn thing didn't send a missile after them. Who's fucking idea what it to not arm a transport with at least light weaponry? What a stupid god damn idea. She didn't care if she had to mod the damn things herself, but she was putting something on these ships when she got back.
"Got another!"
Regina prayed that the one that was just shot down was the one that she'd just flown under. She was praying for a lot of things in that moment. She wanted to get out alive, yes, but even more importantly she wanted Henry to get out of this alive. This was his very first fire fight and it was against AI modified ships that could do god knows what and had missiles more advanced than their own. Her baby boy. She would be lost without him. And it would be her fault.
"God damn it, someone shoot down the other three before the next century," Regina screamed.
"Regina, we've got an incoming!" Mal called.
"Deal with it! I'm a little busy!" She turned again and then up. Groans came from the back and Regina rolled her eyes. Looked like they hadn't reviewed their motion training after all.
"Swan, if they throw up you're deal with them."
"I don't know how I'm supposed to get to them when you're flying like this. It's no fucking wonder they're sick."
Regina glared at the woman from the side of her eyes. "How else would you like me to steer, damn it? I'm trying to keep us alive!" She swerved again just to prove her point.
"I got one, yeah!"
She swallowed. Two more to go.
"God damn it, we're not going to be alive if we choke on our own vomit," Swan snapped.
"If you really were serious about piloting these things you would have reviewed your motion training. Now fucking do what I ordered, I don't care how you do it. Help them if they need it!"
Emma grumbled under her breath but Regina paid her no mind as she kept on flying.
"Regina, we've taken another hit. The shields are at fifty percent. Whatever they're packing has a wallop. You need to shoot the bastards down!" Mal yelled.
"Damn it Mal, reroute power from nonessentials if you have to, just keep my damn ship intact!"
"We already are! It was the first thing I did when I saw what those bastards could do."
Regina swallowed. "Then prepare to jump and hold until a projectile is coming. You know what to do."
"Regina—"
"You can come back for us in a few hours, just do it! The ship is more important than the fighters and you damn well know it." She jerked the wheel hard enough to send the engines shuddering again. Regina cursed and pulled out of the turn. Too many turns like that and they wouldn't have engines.
"The exosuits don't have enough oxygen for more than eight hours," Swan said from her seat.
"And your point? Because I have so much time to entertain your musings right now, Swan."
"The procedure is to wait twelve hours before coming back if a ship has to leave their fighters in the field."
"Yes, nice to know you've been reading the manual. The fighters have an extra supply of oxygen for that reason. Surely you've stocked it a few times yourself. Son of a bitch!" She pulled hard to avoid another missile coming right for them.
"We don't have that extra oxygen."
"We're a transport ship, we have our own filters, or did you forget that?" She rolled her eyes. She did not have time to go over specs with a second rate mechanic right now.
"Right, but unlike the main ship transports need the engines to run those filters."
Regina didn't even bother to provide a response to that. They would have the damn engines what was her point? She shook it off and steered around a clump of wreckage.
"Which we won't have enough fuel if this lasts much longer. As fast as you've been going you're burning right through it."
Regina's eyes flicked down to the fuel gauge. Swan was right. They were at a fourth capacity. They had half an hour flying as they were. How long had they been out here already? It had felt like an eternity.
"One more down!" came over the radio.
"We'll be fine, Swan. There's only one more left."
The woman beside her was silent, but Regina could almost feel her thinking.
"I've lost steering!" a voice shouted. A second later the same voice continued. "No wait, the damn thing is steering itself. Autopilot isn't engaged."
"Are you on one of the new ships?" Regina asked, holding her breath. The new missiles had been used against them, what were the odds? She didn't want to think about that.
"Yes."
Oh god above she hoped that Henry wasn't in one of those ships. She prayed.
"Weapons menu open."
"Soldier, your ship number," Regina said calmly.
"94924."
She swallowed. "I'm sorry, soldier. Everyone fire at will at ship 94924." She couldn't take chances. Missiles fired and another explosion shown in Regina's windshield. "The rest of you in new ships turn them off completely. Rip out the electronics, I don't care what you have to do, just make sure they can't be used by that thing out there."
"Yes, Captain," a chorus of voices said.
"And get that damn last one before we lose anyone else!"
Regina's hands were gripped around the controls so hard she knew her fingers were bright white under the exosuit. She loved being captain sometimes as much as she hated it. And right now she hated it more than anything in the universe.
It was over a few minutes later. The last ship was shot down. Regina closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. It was over. But she didn't think it was over for good.
"Lieutenant Pots how many have we lost?" Regina asked, her voice rough from all the shouting now that she was speaking at a normal volume once more.
"Ten, I believe. We'll get the exact count when we land of course."
"I want the report an hour after landing."
"Yes, Captain."
"The rest of you, hook yourselves up to the new ships and tow them back. I don't want to risk anything right now."
A larger chorus of "Yes, Captain," met her orders.
"And Mal, bring down the shields and start the damage assessment."
"Already done."
Regina kicked herself mentally for addressing Mal by her name instead of her title, but right now the adrenaline was wearing off and her body was groggy and her mind a mess. Ten men on the second day. How in the world could she had prevented it? A thousand different possibilities surfaced in her mind and just made her that much more tired.
She relinquished the controls of the ship. "Swan, take us back." She unbuckled her belts and stood up and made her way to the back of the ship. She looked over Sherwood and Blue with a careful eye. "Are the both of you all right?"
They both nodded, but Blue looked a little green around the gills.
"Good, Blue, as soon as possible you should revisit your motion training. I know you aren't out of the ship much, but it's a good thing to have." Regina didn't even make it a command. She just slumped down in another seat and sighed out another long breath.
Swan took them back, ship moving at a pleasant speed for the first time in god knew how long. The comms link was mostly silent on the way back, only soldiers coordinating the towing of the new ships speaking. Regina allowed the quiet, sporadic drone of them to lull her into a thoughtless state.
The landing was smooth, she had to give Swan credit. She nodded at the woman who had annoyed her so damn much throughout the trip and exited the ship to stand on the landing bay as the rest of the fighters came in. She waited with her heart in her throat as she watched pilots hop out of their ships. She hadn't seen a familiar mop of brown hair yet. She needed to see him before she could go back to the bridge. She wouldn't be able to focus unless she knew for sure that Henry was ok.
Ships kept coming in, and she kept not seeing Henry. Her heart started to beat harder in her chest until finally her little boy climbed out of one of the new ships, pale and a little shaky, but alive. Regina couldn't help herself she ran over and hugged him hard. He hugged her back, wrapping himself around her smaller frame.
"You're ok?" Regina asked, pulling back and looking him over. She couldn't get a completely clear view of him with his exosuit on, but he was standing in front of her, and that was basically enough.
"Yeah, I am."
"Good." She forced herself to gather her wits. "Go debrief, but as soon as you're off shift I want to talk to you more, ok?"
"Sure, Mom, uh Captain."
She laughed for a few seconds, just a little tension dissipating. "You really do need to get better at that." She hugged him again before walking off towards the bridge. There was so much she had to do. The admiral was not going to be happy about what they had found, nor would he approve of the command Regina was about to give. They couldn't stay here. God knew if there would be more of those ships and they were hard enough to take down with just six of them. If there were more, in a larger group, she wouldn't want to see the outcome of that fight.
She reached up and ruffled his hair, not caring that she was getting sweat all over her hands. He was her baby boy. "I'll see you later, dear heart."
Henry made a face at her and fixed his hair quickly checking around him to make sure no one had really seen the embarrassing scene between he and his mother. Regina laughed again and turned. There was work to be done.
