Tennokiken Voyagers: Nineteen
The command deck of Drydock bustled with life, men and women hurrying back and forth as they went about their duties. Of course there was a new energy in this place now, a urgency provided by the sector governor declaring their independence as well as using this place as her headquarters. Where previously they had concentrated on managing repairs and shipping schedules, they now readied for the possibility of combat.
Maya Ibuki, looking much better than she had only a few days ago, worked coolly on the sensors, the brown haired woman vigilantly watching the area around them for anything odd. Together with their communications officer Kyoko Soryu, they guided the massive fleet guarding Drydock to potential threats.
"Spacial disruption," Maya noted, her brown hair falling into her eyes, "near the outer rim of defensive envelope, area epsilon. Likely a vessel transiting in."
"Directing ships to move in," Kyoko said, her orange hair falling in a messy wave down her back, "hailing Captain Strife Aileron of the Yamato to investigate. Hopefully it's another new recruit to our cause."
'Let's hope,' Ritsuko Akagi thought with a smile, the blonde haired engineering officer watching her crew efficiently working. 'I'm so glad Maya has recovered,' she silently mused, 'she was so ragged after escaping Miles.'
Maya's eyes widened as she saw something amiss then blurted out, "Order the ships back, now! Maximum speed!"
"Wha...?" Kyoko looked at her in confusion even as the view screen in front of them suddenly showed a flash of light.
"Report!" Captain Rei Ayanami demanded even as she saw with sick horror the expanding fireball in their ships, like a sun had ignited out there amid the ships, burning them to ash even as a pulse of immense energy blinded anything nearby. Then the shockwave hit the station itself and it felt like the deck heaved itself up, lights flickering as electronics flared and systems failed.
Her voice oddly dull with shock Maya said, "A vessel emerging from hyperspace transit intersected with a ship of the fleet."
"Oh my god..." Kyoko breathed out in horror.
"Start hailing ships," Rei forced herself to think as the blue haired woman continued, "we need to find out how bad this accident was, how many ships we've lost." She turned to her second in command Ritsuko, "Get Governor Ikari up, and notify the Colonel too."
"Do you think it's necessary?" Ritsuko asked as she activated the ship's internal communications network.
"I don't know," Rei answered honestly, "but I'm not about to take the chance."
"Sensors are partially down," Maya reported grimly, "but I'm picking up something..."
The lift doors opened and Colonel Brendan O'Rourke staggered onto the bridge, holding on to the bulkhead as the station rocked. "What the hell is going on?" the brown haired man demanded, his glasses sliding down his nose.
"Still attempting to confirm," Rei reported calmly, looking more like a statue than a human officer. "Maya?" she asked.
Maya worked hard to try to clear the static the electromagnetic pulse from the explosion had left in her precious sensors. Her eyes widened as she finally began to get readings, "Two unidentified vessels, incoming!"
"On screen," Rei ordered, "get me a visual identification."
The main screen's image shifted, showing two blurred shapes swiftly moving through the debris left over by the powerful blast, a third trailing behind. "Oh hell," Ritsuko murmured, recognizing the rough shapes but praying she was wrong.
"Kyoko, can we match them to our database of Fleet vessels?" Rei asked.
The image cleared up due to Maya's efforts, even as their own fleet began to respond, moving to intercept the new ships. The one looked like a patchwork model, assembled from several different ships in a unusual design, but the other was clearly Fleet issue. A gleaming silver disk it swept forward, cutting through space like a knife.
"Confirmed, it's the Venture," Kyoko said after a moment, "we've tentatively identified the other ship as the Revenge and the third is Donovan's ship."
"Damn," Brendan murmured, his eyes sweeping the bridge even as he assessed the situation. 'Those bastards,' he thought as a terrible thought occurred to him.
"Sir?" Ritsuko looked over at him.
"They did this deliberately," Brendan said quietly with real venom in his voice as he growled, "somehow, they deliberately crashed a starship into our lines and slaughtered I have no idea how many ships."
"I would assume over a hundred ships," Rei said calmly, "and the pulse has crippled hundreds more." Raising her voice she addressed Kyoko, "Hail all ships, it's time to destroy the Venture once and for all!"
o0o0o0o0o0o
"Think they've noticed we're here?" Rio asked, the tactical officer keeping her hands lightly on her controls, ready to send missles or beams lancing towards the enemy.
"They know," Kelly Miles said, checking a terminal mounted beside her captain's chair. While their local area was filled only with debris and inactive vessels, the surviving ships on the far side of Drydock were mobilizing.
"Dan, ready?" Rio asked, a dangerous smile tugging on her lips.
Lieutenant Dan Wisner nodded tensely, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he skillfully took them through the wreckage. "We'd better hope Shane can keep up," he said with a smile of his own.
"I heard that," Shane's amused voice came through on the tight beam communications link between the three ships, "You'll be lucky to keep up with me, kid."
"Kid?!"
"We're ready as well," Fatora reported.
"Still going with the plan, Miles?" Victoria Donovan demanded from her third ship, the smaller bug agile craft gliding through the wrecks.
"I don't see why not," Kelly said mildly. She swept her bridge crew with her eyes, drawing confidence from their confidence in her, then said, "Let's move out."
Siobhan Ward was the first to spot them, the hybrid sensors of her Revenge cutting through the clutter around them easily. "Incoming," the black haired woman warned, her cybernetics gleaming, "ten ships and more on the way."
"Preparing targeting solutions," Rio barked, fingers flying on her controls as they raced through space towards Drydock.
"Shoot to cripple," Kelly called out, watching as destroyers and dreadnaughts neared, the ships dwarfing them substantially.
Rio snarled softly, "That'll slow us down."
With a hint of pain in her voice Miles addressed Rio alone, "We've already got enough ghosts haunting us with our enterance alone, I don't want to add to it."
"Do my best," Rio conceded.
From her station at communications Lucille Bevia spoke up, the light brown haired woman unusually serious, "We're being hailed."
"On screen," Kelly commended, "let's hear what they have to say."
The screen flared as a exterior shot of space was replaced by the busy command deck of Drydock. Captain Rei Ayanami was pale, her blue hair and red eyes striking, but what they all found most noticeable was how her uniform had been carefully cleaned of Fleet designations, patches and insignia replaced by a new symbol, the sector governor's crest.
"Son of a..." Dan murmured softly.
"Commonwealth starship Venture," Rei said to them flatly, "you are ordered to stand down immediately or be destroyed..."
"You're alive?!" Maya blurted out, the Drydock officer clearly having seen Kelly Miles on their view screen, too.
Miles rose gracefully, standing as she smiled slightly. "I have a counter offer, Captain Ayanami," she said calmly.
"Oh?" Rei looked questioning.
Quietly Rio whispered to Kelly, 'Enemy is nearing firing range. I'm letting them take the first shot, as ordered.'
'Good,' Kelly whispered back. Raising her voice to the Drydock staff Kelly said, "Surrender Colonel O'Rourke and any other staff that participated, sponsored or aided in Raider attacks for trial, and we will leave the system in peace."
"I can't do that," Rei said.
"Didn't think so," Kelly conceded. "Cut transmission," she moved back to her seat, "all hands to battle stations."
"Enemy firing!" Rio barked even as she launched a flight of missiles.
"Brace yourselves," Dan yelled as she cut the safeties and wrenched the ship into a sudden turn, getting them clear of the first shots with feet to spare.
"Could we go back?" Lucille asked, "I think I left my stomach back there."
To be continued...
Tennokiken Voyagers: Twenty
The Venture bucked wildly as they were hammered by another near miss, Dan's sharp reflexes getting them through another wave of incoming missiles and energy beams. He puffed a strand of brown hair out of his eyes as he said, "I've got a window in their defense screen, we'll be there in a minute or so."
Captain Kelly Miles nodded grimly, tightly holding on to the command chair as the ship bucked and swerved too fast for the internal dampers to keep up with. The blonde haired woman narrowed her green eyes, "Ready the emergency docking system, we're going to have to do this fast and dirty."
Rio pressed the firing stud, the grim faced woman sending out another salvo of missiles flying even as their beam weapons lashed out to blast another ship coming at them. "You sure we need to do that?" she asked.
"No other way," Kelly answered, "unless Ayanami changes her mind about surrendering the Raider's commanders."
"Hail from the Revenge," Lucille said flatly, the communications officer also working to scramble and otherwise confuse their advesaries communications, her brown hair stuffed once more under her usual cap.
"On screen," Kelly answered.
"We'll drop off Isis as planned," Siobhan Ward reported, her coppery black hair flowing over her cybernetic eye, "then we'll provide you cover with Donovan."
"Thank you," Kelly said, "we'll be relying on you."
"Do you think Donovan will double cross us?" Siobhan wondered.
"I don't know," Kelly admitted after a moment, "but she has a lot to lose if we fail..."
"Fair enough," Siobhan nodded, "let's do this."
Meanwhile, on the deck of her own vessel Victoria Donovan held on to her command chair for dear life, her curly black hair falling gracefully against dusky skin. "Fatora, how are we doing?" she asked with forced calm.
"On course," the slim brown haired woman said as Fatora concentrated on her work at the weapons array, "Miles and Ward are surprisingly effective."
"Shane and Dan are insane," Aielle muttered as the navigator punched keys desperately, trying her best to keep up with the other pilots wild maneuvers.
Ifurita manned communications, though in fact her control board had connections to most of the ship systems too. "Should we pull back?" she wondered, the silver haired amazon meeting Victoria's eyes with a gentle concern.
"We're commited," Victoria said flatly. "Fatora?"
"Ma'am?" Fatora responded even as she crippled another enemy ship and kept an eye on two more sweeping in.
"Once we reach Drydock Miles is taking a team aboard while we and Ward try to hold off the rebels," Victoria said grimly, "I want a targeting solution prepared for the Dock's prime energy arrays, first a penetration salvo then a set high yield explosives."
"You want to trigger a reaction in the power system," Fatora breathed out, "and possibly destroy Drydock."
"Ma'am," Aielle blurted, "there are thousands of people on there!"
Victoria looked at the view screen, at the chaos of battle all around them as she replied, "If Miles fails this rebellion will spread, costing even more lives than that." A dangerous smile, "This way, we cut off it's head while it's still controllable."
"Reasonable," Ifurita agreed.
"Good luck Miles," Fatora murmured, "you'll need it."
In front of the three vessels Drydock swelled in size, it's own defenses activating too little, too late. Dodging the lower powered defensive guns Venture swung in close to the massive construct, lining up the ship to the docks. Normally twin docking chutes would activate from both crafts, but this was a far from normal situation. Beam weapons fired into the dock, rupturing armor and blowing hatches even as the emergency docking chute deployed, lashing out from the Venture to lock on to Drydock's skin.
As they did so a silvery shape launched from the Revenge, impacting into the hull of Drydock nearby, then the misshapen craft wheeled around to face the recovering mass of enemy craft. "All right people," Siobhan said with a feral grin from where she had taken over tactical, "let's give 'em hell."
Kelly Miles strapped a regulation pistol to her side as her team hurried to the docking chute, her expression grim. "WE should be bringing some security staff," Rio advised, toting a much more wicked looking rifle.
"No time," Kelly said, "besides, I'm hoping we won't need them."
Dan gulped, the brown haired man carrying his own rifle as they headed down the metallic tube from the Venture to Drydock. "Do you have a plan, ma'am?" he asked nervously.
"I always have a plan," Kelly answered as they entered the battered docking area, the room clearly showing damage from their weapons fire.
"Two guards were waiting," Isis calmly appeared from up the corridor as the artificial woman continued, "I subdued them."
"Good work," Rio nodded. She looked at Kelly, "The bridge deck?"
"Ikari and the others should be there," Kelly agreed, "but first I need to talk to Isis."
"Yes, Mother?" Isis replied as Kelly gently drew her aside.
"Can you..." Kelly dropped her voice so that Rio and Dan couldn't hear.
"I wish she wouldn't do stuff like this," Rio sighed as she took a cigarette out and lit it, despite being in defiance of several rules.
"Do what?" Dan wondered as he kept a wary eye around the corridor they were waiting in, knowing the crew of Drydock had to respond soon. 'Though if the EMP fried their systems badly enough, they may not know where we are,' he mused hopefully.
"She's got a strategy in mind that I'm going to disapprove of," Rio took a drag, "that's why she's just talking to Isis."
Dan clutched his rifle nervously, "So what do we do?"
Rio shrugged, "Follow her lead. She IS the captain."
"All right," Kelly said briskly, "we've got a ways to go so let's move out."
The next ten minutes were a small slice of hell as Kelly used her knowledge of ship design to lead them through conduits and crawl spaces up through the station, the sort of route only a engineer might devise.
"Are we there yet?" Dan whimpered.
"If you ask that again," Rio said as they shoved up a hatch, "I'll shoot you myself."
"And I'll help," Isis added.
"You're a android," Kelly blinked, "you're not supposed to get annoyed."
"Humans have rubbed off on me?" Isis shrugged.
"Siobhan's been a bad influence," Kelly noted.
Together they emerged into a deserted hallway, the soft whine of alert alarms ringing off in the distance. Rio drew her gun as she softly asked, "How far to the bridge?"
"Less than a minute that way," Isis informed them, "this service corridor was sealed as a emergency bulkhead shortly after construction was finished."
"Where's the security?" Dan wondered.
Kelly checked her pistol as she lead them down the hall, "The official schematics don't show any access to this place." A grin, "I only know because I did a essay on security flaws in this kind of station at the academy."
"And I downloaded that essay," Isis agreed.
"Shh," Rio waved them to silence as they heard conversation muted by a bulkhead.
"Explosive charge," Kelly whispered, holding out her hand.
Rio calmly passed it over, "Here."
"How did she know Rio had explosives on her?' Dan wondered.
"Doesn't everyone?" Isis smiled mysteriously.
Dan sighed, wondering if she was joking as Kelly calmly set the device. Gesturing them away they took what cover they could, waiting til it was time. In a flare of light and a burst of sound the wall exploded, the energy mostly safely shunted away from them and out onto the command deck.
"What in the..." Captain Rei Ayanami coughed as smoke from blown instrument pannels bellowed around the bridge.
"Damage report!" Ritsuko Akagi demanded, the blonde leaning on the engineering console as she tried to understand what happened.
"Where are Miles and her invaders?" Yui Ikagi asked from where she was watching, eyes narrowed in thought.
"Right here," Kelly said calmly as she lead her team through the smoke of the still burning bulkhead wall.
"Don't even think about it," Rio said as she kept her guns leveled on the security staff.
"Governor Ikari?" Kelly smiled grimly, "let's talk."
To be continued...