"Batman once said if you kill a killer, the number of killers in the world remains the same. So with that logic in mind, Imma just kill every killer in the galaxy, then turn the gun on myself. How do you like them apples huh? I mean... x+1 has gotta be smaller than x*x. Where x represents the number of killers. And if every killer is killed by someone different it becomes the square of x... however... wait would it be 2x instead? I don't frakkin know, someone get me notepad and a tequila shot. Oh crap, and someone get the dead guy out of here? Thanks buddy" - Unknown Marine sergeant during the OPA Wars.
AWS Normandy, Thessia, Asari System
"Frak me, all engines ahead now!".
Hiccup darted for a chair and quickly fastened himself in using the straps. Within seconds he felt a massive force press down on his torso and a groaning noise fill the cabin. He watched as Toothless dragged himself to a cryo-chamber, and the automatic doors closed down, shielding the dragon from sight. "Gaeta what's happening?", he asked.
Gaeta frantically drew up the screens, switching between them. "I got us crawling through subspace towards contact Sierra-1 with a torpedo in each tube but you sure as hell better have a plan because both of our new stealth friends have target locked us".
"Fire a torpedo at each of them and prepare the countermeasures".
Two metallic clunks echoed out through the cabin as the torpedoes where fired from their tubes. Immediately their RCS engines ignited and rotated them round before a pair of drives activated on the rear. "Torpedo locked on both, they're trying to communicate to the dreadnought".
"Jam them then!".
The noise continued as the ship cruised ahead, its engines making it clearly visible on subspace sonar. "Hit! First torpedo has... holy Thor look at that!". He looked out of the window, and in the fog of subspace, could see a bright flash in the distance. "It exploded?".
"Not even, it imploded on itself, the second stealth ship deployed- oh frak Torpedo inbound!".
Hiccup bit down on the mouth guard as the ship pivoted with huge force and sent his arm above his head. "Anderson whats the plan?!", he asked. David pressed several buttons on his console. "We need to take out the dreadnought before they get word of what's happening".
Gaeta gulped, "It may be too late sir, they've target locked our region of subspace and their missile bay doors just opened".
Hiccup racked his mind for a way to escape from the situation, anything which could help. While in subspace their PDCs would be useless against a full salvo, they'd have milliseconds to take down the torpedoes and while he had seen the cannons do some remarkable things, taking down a full dreadnought sized salvo of torpedoes while in subspace was not doable. "Anderson I'm out of ideas what do you think?".
David grunted as the ship jerked again, causing Hiccup to grimace. "Sorry! Had to dodge a frakkin mass accelerator shot from that damned dreadnought! Admiral what are my orders?".
Hiccup thought for a moment. The enemy had numbers and power on their side with the flotilla surrounding the dreadnought. Its main strength came in its spinal cannons which could out-perform anything but the largest railguns in the Archian Armada. With extra torpedoes it also threatened the smaller warships as well. They needed to outrun not only the mass accelerators of the dreadnought, but those of its frigate and cruiser escorts.
Suddenly a stupid idea popped into Hiccups head. "Gaeta what kind of material is our armour made of?".
"Titanium-gronkle iron alloy. Designed to absorb thermal energy from torpedo attacks". That made sense, no-one could really build armour capable of stopping a 20 ton tungsten slug at several thousand kilometres per hour.
"How close you reckon you can get us to that dreadnought".
"What are you suggesting Lieutenant Haddock?".
"We get super close to the dreadnought and ram a torpedo up its ass, then keep flying circles around the central spire".
"At that close range we won't last long against the dreadnought!".
"We'll last longer than we will out here in the open, and they might not risk shooting at their flagship".
"Admiral?".
David just closed his eyes, "Do it Gaeta".
Gaeta shook his head before bringing up the helm controls. "Someone better have a magic solution for how the frak we're going to deal with their lasers".
"Extend every frakkin PDC we got onboard and prepare the rail-gun to fire", said David.
The grey mist outside retreated, and before Hiccup knew it the massive shape of Thessia was glowing in the light of the star. The dreadnought, even at this range, was intimidating. It's design was similar to that of other asari capital ships with a main hollow central spine possessing the main engine, a pair of long wings holding its spinal cannons and two massive towers on the dorsal and ventral side holding the hangars and command centers.
Around it the cruisers and frigates where in a very tight formation, and Hiccup almost forgot to breath as they circled around the dreadnought at such close range he could actually see the GUARDIAN lasers on the hull circling round to point at him. They where shaped like rifles on turrets, with long barrels glittering in the sunlight. Very different from the short, stubby barrels of PDCs. "Armour integrity is falling!".
"Open fire on the Guardian lasers and prepare tube four for firing". A dull rumbling shook the hull of the Normandy as it let loose sprays of bullets. At the range they where at they where not at all registered by the kinetic barriers, as they didn't have enough time to deflect or change the trajectory of the shots. Several of the PDC's where unable to acquire and so just fired at the wings of the dreadnought, likely doing nothing but pissing it off.
"Holy Thor, they ain't firing on us at all. But we got several fighters inbound to our position".
"Shred those bastards to hell and fire tube two".
The asari fighters, obviously completely excited at seeing an enemy ship so close to their own pulled well into range of the PDCs, and within seconds where torn to shreds as several hundred rounds perforated the flimsy ships like a hot knife through butter. The railgun on the underside of the nose of the Normandy obliterated the remaining GUARDIAN laser in a shower of molten metal, and a torpedo floated, almost serenely, away from the Normandy into the central engine section, before exploding and causing jets of flame to fire out of the engine. "Hit on the upper engine block, the dreadnought is damaged, what now?".
"Get that nuke ready. Hiccup you're in the cargo hold with Moller, the mission remains the same".
"What why?". Anderson looked conflicted as he turned away and pressed Toothless' release mechanism for his pod. "I'm afraid that's classified".
The ship shook slightly, as a large tubular shape shot from its launcher and embedded itself in the crater of the previous torpedo. "We are not done talking about this!", he yelled as he proceeded down the stairs with toothless on his heels. "Lieutenant Haddock!", he heard from the side, to see Khodemchuk dragging his weapon with him. "Have you seen Captain Moller?".
"He's in the cargo hold apparently, what's going on?".
"I don't know Hiccup, all I know is that it has something to do with a refinery on the surface, I heard Admiral Anderson talking about it yesterday afternoon". He stopped dead. "Maybe we're going down a little sooner than expected?".
"Possibly, or this could be unrelated. For all we know"
Spirit of Fire, Somewhere near Thessia
The doors to the bridge flew open with a massive crack, and the angry footsteps grew in volume as the bridge crew saluted to the new arrival. "At ease crewman. Now would someone do me a kind honour... and take a moment out of their busy schedule to tell me WHAT THE FRAK IS GOING ON DOWN THERE!".
Her tablet buzzed with a report. "The asari have some sort of stealth ship, it managed to pick up the Normandy prematurely and the Normandy have engaged in... we aren't really sure".
She looked at the report, with a 3D model of the contact as well as the subspace SONAR readings on the stealth ship. "What do you mean we don't know? They're either in torpedo fighting range, railgun range or CQB".
"Well. they've entered ridiculously close quarter battle".
"How close?".
"Try two frakking feet close quarters, they're lighting up that dreadnought with every single PDC they have and for now I'm not sure how long till one of those cruisers gets the bright idea to open fire".
She sighed and shut down the tablet. "Then we can only pray they make it. What's the status on the flotilla?".
"All repairs are complete and they stand ready to initiate Operation: Uppercut". A wicked smile crossed her face. "Clear to engage".
GUARDIAN 09HJ, Orbital Missile Facility
"Tiger 1 this is Spirit of Fire, you are clear to initiate Operation: Uppercut".
"Copy that Spirit of Fire, Uppercut confirmed".
Praetor Helena Agathon gave the go ahead to her second-in-command, Lieutenant James Cree, who raised his weapon and began proceeding down the halls. "Tiger 2 this is Tiger 1, status?".
"Tiger 2 here, the neurotoxin proved excellent in killing the marine bay, we have Night Terrors moving through the vents to take out the sensor arrays now. Tiger 3 is ready to secure the small arms locker and we're preparing to move through the missile door control bay to reach the secondary conn".
She continued down darkened corridors lit only by blue emergency lighting and kept her weapon raised. "Copy that Tiger 2, we're about to take the primary control center".
She cut off communications before anything could happen and came to a door. Raising one hand she pulled it down once, before motioning to the door, and Cree withdrew a small hexagonal pad. The pad would use a shaped explosive charge to blow the door in and disable the electronics, then they would burst in and slaughter everything that moved. She wished they had some nadders, or possible a Hobblegrunt, but in this close quarters a magnesium fire could melt the face off of the nadder firing it, working on a missile platform wasn't known for featuring spacious conditions.
The whining of the explosive grew in volume, and the door exploded inwards. Immediately flashing strobe lights on their weapons appeared, and they burst in firing suppressed rounds. A plasma shot would leave a white hot trail and let out a lot of noise as their weapons cooled, for this a suppressed coilgun would be far stealthier, and the weapons only let out tinking noises as the little metal pellets bounced off walls.
Fighting in zero-g was a challenging ordeal, as bodies did not fall. They just sort of stayed where they where and swayed from side to side. Meaning as gory as it sounded, they could be used for cover. And that was exactly what Agathon did as she moved with expert motions behind the dead body of an asari and fired a full clip of ammunition at the opposite wall.
With strobe lights blinding them and a hail of coilgun accelerated metal slugs flying through the room, the asari stood no chance, with blood droplets floating serenely through air, a purple colour far different from the crimson of human blood, but somehow different from the magenta blood many dragons had.
"Tiger 1 to Tiger 2 and 3, the Control Center is down, what's the status on the secondary bridge?".
"The asari here put up a fight, two of my guys are dead and we lost a Night Terror in a grenade explosion, but no alarms tripped for now".
"Tiger 3 here, we took heavy casualties when we attacked the small arms locker, there's just 5 of us left, that frakking intel the turians gave us was bullshit".
"Tiger 2 rendezvous with Tiger 3 to take the RCS controls and await further orders, the Stalingrad is 2 minutes away from making contact and we need this place ready for when the others arrive".
"Acknowledged, moving to secure now".
She nodded to Cree who lowered his weapon and inserted a small stick into the computers, before frowning. "Update Cree?".
"Computer Systems are impressively well defended, it seems these guys didn't get the memo to network the PDCs like the others did".
"So how fast can you get the systems ready to fire".
"At least 2 days, maybe more. Brute-forcing this kind of security within hours is going to take more computing power than I have here".
"Crap, then we need a plan B...". She thought for a moment. "Tiger 2 here, we've taken the bridge, but the commanding officer is already dead".
That was an annoyance, if the CO of the entire station had been killed they had lost their access to the missiles. "Crap, what's the prognosis?".
"Looks like she shot herself. Should we continue the operation Praetor?".
"Of course. Secure the rest of the area and vent the other compartments". Shutting off the line of communications she then yelled, "Someone get me a tightbeam to the Spirit of Fire".
"Aye Aye Praetor, tightbeam open".
The shape of Admiral Heift entered the screen, "Praetor what's the status on the facility".
"We've secured targets 1, 2 and 3 with low casualties on Tiger 1 and 2, but Tiger 3 took heavy casualties on the small arms locker, seems our Turian friends weren't as accurate as we hoped".
"Unavoidable I'm afraid, what about the CO?".
"Dead I'm afraid, she put a little lead ball through the front of her skull and painted the walls with her brains". Heift grimaced, before nodding "Then our job just got a lot harder, how much time does Mr Cree need?".
"A few days, maybe less if we can get him more resources or we get lucky. What's this all about? Why are we taking a strategic missile silo?".
"Call it a contingency and stop asking questions before it gets you in trouble or killed. Praetor I'm sending the Scipio Africanus to your position as a hacking rig, but I want the damn ship back before we enter phase 2 of Uppercut".
"You'll have my assurances admiral. What should we do in the meantime".
"Be ready for the signal and prepare to fire the first silo, our intel says its a fuel air explosive but double check it isn't nuclear, I'd rather not irradiate a garden world".
"Aye Aye Admiral", and with that the screen shut off and Helena dropped the tablet to her belt. "Cree we got an EWA ship inbound, will that do you any good?".
"I can get the timing down to a day at most, but that's still 6 hours too late for-".
"For uppercut I know. In the meantime find anything computer you can to speed up the process".
"Aye Aye Praetor. What about y-".
An asari burst through the doors with a battle cry, her weapon raised and clicking uselessly. Judging by her uniform, the lack of armour, and the non-existence of any kinetic barrier generators on her armour, she was a non-combatant who had seen too many movies and TV shows. Her blue and brown uniform bore the emblem of the Asari Navy, and the deep aqua blue tone of her skin said she was young, possible as young as 38, the youngest age an Asari was allowed to join the navy. With all that in mind it was probably completely unlikely the maiden had ever taken a life, yet here she was pointing a weapon straight at Helena. Who didn't even flinch before putting a 2.5 millimeter wide copper slug through her eye.
Her body, unconnected to the floor by her mag boots, which had become detached from the floor at some point, flew forward like a loose jumpsuit. A purple trail of blood droplets decorated the room as they coalesced like a slimy red animal and crept backward behind her. The limp body, lacking any of the life it had been possessing just seconds before, slammed into the opposite wall with some force, and a blob of blood no larger than a fist splattered against the head tentacles of the asari.
"Someone get that frakking door shut. I'm going to meet up with Tiger 2".
137 Years Earlier, Somewhere in the Sol System
The engine continued to burn. Its lone occupant strapped to his chair. The g-force was over the point where he could even lift his joints. For all the use his muscles where he might as well have been drugged, and at this point, his vision was darkening and blurring. Only slightly.
Adrenaline was already filling Solomon Epstein's veins by the time he reached this point, about 34 minutes into his flight. The golden reflective insides of his yacht where quite beautiful as they reflected the glittering lights at the control panel as the fuel gauge slowly ticked down. At this point Epstein had no reservations about what he had done and what would happen.
A truly ironic thing to be killed by ones own invention.
Sooner or later it happens to us all
The plasma particles left a thin blue wake in their trail and the gleaming ship was visible at the tail end from thousands of kilometers away, as opposed to the hundreds of kilometers for standard fusion torches of the era.
Me, you, everyone you love. Maybe you see it coming. Maybe it catches you by surprise.
His deep blue eyes closed in pain again as the pressure against his head and body increased. He could see dark spots forming in the center of his vision and a horrifying pain growing in his head, like his brain was exploding.
But, in a sustained high-G burn, what usually kills you is a stroke
His eyes suddenly widened and a breath of air in the form of a gasp escaped. Blood began to cloud his eyes and turned the deep blue irises and whiteness to go a deep crimson. The red criss-crossed lines of too many nights with not enough sleep where eclipsed as the blood blinded him to everything.
Lying there, on my death bed. All I could think about was... what happens next.
The fuel gauge ticked down a tenth of a percent again, as the ships mass was lightening significantly. After all, most of its mass was fuel, but at the rate it was burning it, the acceleration would continue quickening. To use its own creators words... a once in a generation breakthrough.
I'd never give Katie a child. But she had the plans for my drive.
The pain doubled tenfold, but he couldn't even scream in pain as the back of his throat lumped up and the drowsiness took over. His vision was completely black now. His eyes a stark red as his brain struggled to keep his quickly failing body from dying. A futile gesture considering just how little blood was actually going to a good cause.
They'd make her rich, for the rest of her life. Because with my drive... the Epstein drive. The Archian Federation would finally be able to move outward and bring order to a scattered human race. Go out beyond the outer planets. Explore the belt. Bring aid to struggling colonies. Keep pirates at bay. Remake the galaxy in our image.
These thoughts floated around what little remained of Solomon's consciousness and he would have smiled, had he not been dying on an acceleration couch. Struggling to breath. Struggling to even think.
My drive would give us the edge we needed to finally break free from the sol system. Not just as a colony, but to establish a permanent home. To build a new world for ourselves
That's the wonderful and terrible thing about technology.
The craft shot by, heading out in its infinitely long journey. Never to be recovered. Only visible by telescopes.
It changes everything.
Codex Entry: Normandy class Stealth Frigate
Length: 128 meters
Wingspan: 56 meters
Powerplant: 1 RTX-908 Antimatter Reactor
Engines: 4 Variable Sweep 'Wyvern' Hybrid Epstein-Pion plasma rockets, 2 retrograde pion rockets
Drive Core: Lancer Mk I Hyper-light Negative Point Drive
Armaments: Multiple concealed torpedo tubes, 8 Redfield Ballistics 40 millimeter point defence cannons, 1 spinal retractable 'Kopesh' light railgun
Auxiliary Craft: Small hangar bay capable of fitting a fighter and a single Shieldmaiden assault tank
Utilities: SONAR arrays, Subspace Entry System, Internal Emissions Sink, Advanced avionics and atmospheric control surfaces
Codex: With 1 currently in service and 120 more planned, the Normandy class Stealth Frigate is by far the most advanced warship ever introduced by the Archian Naval Administration. Designed and tested around Gargantua black hole the ships are a relatively rare sight presently, the second of her class, the AWS Stalingrad, and the third, the AWS Taranto are in an incomplete stage, but where rushed into service to provide logistical services for Operation: Uppercut. While the Normandy is a relatively new ship, rumours throughout Archia space already reference Project: Laniakea, a joint operation with the Turian Heirarchy intended as a one-off, as budget pre-requisites are already comparable with the development of the Unyielding Heirophant.
Hi guys, so I managed to secure myself in the apprenticeship I was going for. It means my job switched from shoving items onto shelves into looking at little pictures of aeroplanes and getting excited when they do things in the right way, followed by almost murdering someone as I realise that half the test script needs rewriting. Funnnnnn... Literally have had barely any time for writing and while I do this apprenticeship my writing speed is going to be cut in half. At this point I'm going to have to own up and say that I can't hope to keep to any sort of schedule so for now, just expect at worst 1 chapter a month and at best, you might get lucky and I might suddenly come out with several chapters. I know its terrible to have such an inconsistent schedule, but for now its the best I can do. I'm not the best of writers at the best of times, but at this point I can't do much.
Also to the person who is using this story as a premise for their own... I'm actually interested to read it, but please make sure you have permission from writers in the future before you use their universes. Just leave a little note in the authors comments section, just saying "By the way, I was inspired by HTTYD: Battlefront" that's all it takes. But yeah I don't mind so much, but others may get a little more annoyed.