Ten
Origin Point
Location Unknown
17 September 2017
Consciousness came to him slowly. His dreams had been plagued by a never-ending nightmare. He had been told he would not dream, but the scientists were wrong. Conscious thought, along with remnants of who he had once been, always intruded when the machine slept. As the pieces fell into place, a cold hatred replaced the sorrow for what had been lost. Horde Prime should have let him die. But he did not die. Instead, he was turned into the most lethal weapon the galaxy had ever seen. Cold and calculating, the program used every shred of knowledge he possessed to formulate tactics and strategies to employ the machine army in ways no machine brain could have in the past.
The war was eventually won after the defeat of the Guardians. While the armor had been placed out of reach behind an impenetrable barrier created by mixing science and technology, the operators had been destroyed. With victory of his enemy secured, Horde Prime deactivated the army that had served him so well for so long in favor of the smaller robots that would become known simply as the Horde Trooper.
Horde Prime's bastard creation was not granted the oblivion of final death, however. The creation had become too powerful to destroy. Horde Prime never truly got rid of anything which might be useful in the future, so he had been ejected into the depths of space. Horde Prime probably hoped he would fall in gravity of a planet or star to be burned to cinders.
That did not happen. Instead, he cruised through the endless night nursing a cold rage against the Guardians - whom he knew would someday return - all things organic, and, most especially, Horde Prime.
His thoughts were interrupted by the vast field of transparent blocks containing snippets of information. Those now relatively close were darkened in shades of gray. The ones requiring his attention were lit up with snapshots, video files, and combinations of both.
A file opened before him displaying telemetry from the latest target: Transfer Station 437. As he observed the transmission, a segmented stack of orange blocks flew towards him.
"The attack is proceeding as predicted. Defenses are somewhat more potent than predicted, but hardly a match for your army," the base AI reported.
"I can see that. I don't see anything requiring my attention, however."
As if the forces deployed to the distant transfer station had heard him, the next report in the queue started.
Alarms flashed. Warning klaxons blared.
PROXIMITY ALERT! PROXIMITY ALERT! PRIMARY OBJECTIVE DETECTED. DIRECTIVE OVERRIDE RECOMMENDED.
Now what was this about? "Elaborate," he commanded the distant force commander via the subspace link.
PRIORITY POWER EMINATIONS DETECTED. IDENTITIES COMFIRMED AS UNNAMED BATTLESUIT AND GUARDIAN FALCON.
Two Guardians in the target system? No mention of a starship arriving in the star system. He manipulated the data stream and pulled up a real-time image via the sensors from his warships. Twin red dots appeared in an area where no starship should be. The trajectory indicated the track followed a path outside the established trade routes.
The flashing dots were so close together there were practically one. Zooming in, the dots separated two distinct indicators. Switching to visual feeds, he scanned the area around the blinking dots.
Nothing.
No starship. No craft. No source for how the energy signatures were moving through space. In his time, cloaking technology amounted to screens against sensor sweeps. Cloaking fields that visually hid the vessel were experimental and came with a high-power cost that prohibited their use on all but a capital ship with a sufficiently large power network. In the thousand or so years he had been floating in space, someone may have solved the problem. Or came at it from another direction that proved to be a more viable workaround.
Apparently, someone forgot about the unique signature radiated by the regenerating capacitor cores used in six battlesuits. Forgot that the suits were tracked by that signature. It was how they had been followed to the sanctuary moon where the six Guardians had made their final stand.
And it was how he would find and destroy Kragor's successors now.
"Deviation authorized. However, send only the two battlecruisers. The main objective is to be completed," he transmitted.
The distant attack force commander acknowledged the order. He doubted that two warships would be enough to capture or destroy the Guardians but gathering information on the capabilities of Kragor's successors would go a long way toward completing the primary objective. He remained watching long enough to ensure his orders were being followed, then turned his attention to other more important matters.
Like the new body nearing completion.
Transfer Station 437
Ladyhawke dropped out of hyperspace just beyond the ecliptic, where the enemy would likely not be scanning for anyone coming to the aid of the embattled civilians. This station had minimal defenses unlike Nexus 321. They were no match for the power of the enemy, of course, but that did not stop the defenders from trying.
The MASC system was designed to conceal all of a starship's power emanations. The downside of the MASC was that a starship could still be detected on visual sensors. Space being really big lessened the chance of that unless you knew you adversary.
A cloaking device hide a starship behind an energy field that mimicked the surroundings. It was not foolproof. A tachyon beam could penetrate the cloak, but, again, one had to know you were present and approximately where to start scanning.
Only one system could be in operation at a time. A safety feature had been devised to automatically kick in. If MASC were operating and the cloak was engaged, MASC would promptly disengage in favor of the cloak. Testing had discovered that both systems operating at the same time caused an interference field to form, giving away the starship's location.
Once assured that no enemies lurked in the outer system, Adrian engaged the cloak and sped in toward the massive station at three-quarters power. Being overpowered and over-gunned for its size, the Ladyhawke's engines on full burn might leak through the cloaking field. The idea was to gather intelligence rather than engage the enemy.
The plan was to get in close enough to drop the cloak, take detailed scans and bug out before the enemy could react. Of course, no plan ever survive contact with the enemy, and this one was destined to go down the black hole before they could get in close.
"Details are starting to resolve," Anyssa reported.
After having been given a crash course in sensor operations, Colonel Markson was watching enemy activity while Anyssa took the detailed scans. As the starship drew within one AU of the target, he began noticing a definite shift in the enemy. Jon frowned at the readings. Passive sensors could only pull in so much information, but it appeared that the enemy was reacting to something.
"Possible enemy movement," Jon reported.
"In which direction?" Adrian asked. The holographic display projected above the forward console showed the projected course he currently followed in an arcing line of blue dashes. Several lines of red dashes indicated escape routes, updated every few seconds as the ship neared the massive station, should they become necessary.
"I think they may be coming at us," Jon answered, not too sure of his analysis.
"Concur," Apone said from the tactical table at the back. He was backing the colonel and Anyssa while Gabe remained in the forward cargo hold playing with his new toy.
"Miriam, are they scanning with tachyon beams?" Adrian said.
It took a few moments before the AI answered. "No. The enemy appears intent on their task of destroying everything in and around the station."
Something was not right. Adrian pulled up the colonel's display on the holo-projection. Two enemy ships were adjusting their courses. It could just be a reaction to the meager defensive fire from the station. As the track updated, however, it became clear they had another destination in mind. Adrian watched for another full minute before making up his mind.
"I don't like this," Adrian declared. He disengaged the programmed course and followed one of the escape tracks away from the approaching warships.
Over the next several minutes, Adrian took evasive maneuvers in an attempt to shake off the two warships that were now clearly following the Ladyhawke. He checked the threat display and saw no indicated scanning beams of any kind. And yet they were following the cloaked starship unerringly.
"What did your people do to this ship?" Adrian demanded of Anyssa.
"Nothing. The only major thing they did was replace the cockpit with the upgraded module including the tactical table. Some software and hardware upgrades, but nothing that would alter the overall ship functions," Anyssa insisted. She was at a loss to explain it.
Adrian shook his head. "Something is different," he muttered to himself. "What? What is it?" He adjusted course for a close pass of the only planet in the solar system. A gas giant nearly three times the size of Jupiter. "Miriam, begin plotting a jump toward that gas giant."
Anyssa turned in her seat, horrified. "A micro hyperspace jump inside a solar system? Even my people are not crazy enough to do that!"
Adrian was not listening. He racked his brain to figure out what was happening. "What is different about this ship?"
The Sorceress' head snapped up suddenly. "The Guardians."
"What?"
"The battlesuits. Since it cannot be any of us, and the starship hasn't been sufficiently modified…"
"When you eliminate all the possibilities, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth," Adrian said, remembering the many stories of Sherlock Holmes he'd read. Improbably, the presence of the suits had to be the key. Somehow, the enemy could track their power signatures even through the cloaking field.
Opening the comm to the cargo hold, Adrian snapped, "Wing! Falcon! Shut down."
Protests were immediate. "Why?" Wing demanded. "What if you need us?"
"No time to explain. Ironically, your presence may be what gets us killed. Now shut down." Miriam had the micro-jump figures on the board and ready. "Gabe, are they shut down?"
Several agonizing moments passed. "Yes, Adrian. They shut themselves down."
"Miriam, engage micro-jump. Now!"
Normally, the dim lights would brighten, but since they were going into a combat situation, Miriam switched modes while obeying her pilot's command. The cloak shimmered away. MASC engaged, and the hyperdrive powered up. An electrified cloud formed ahead of the speeding starship. Tendrils of electricity reached out for it and it shot into hyperspace. Kaleidoscope streaks of color flashed by on the wraparound screens. The trip had only lasted for six seconds when another cloud opened and spat the starship back out into normal space.
Ships exiting hyperspace usually used sub-light engines and reaction control thrusters to slow down when returning to normal space. In this case, Adrian ratcheted the speed up to maximum in a mad dash for the gas giant. Miriam's calculations had been impeccable. Ladyhawke emerged several million kilometers from the roiling mass of the gas planet.
Sensors identified jet streams more powerful than anything recorded in the atmosphere of Jupiter. Adrian knew his starship could handle the speed and the pressure up to a certain depth. He found a fast-moving stream a mile below the surface layer and dove for it. The distance shrank rapidly. Adrian altered the angle to take advantage of the conditions.
"Contact!" Anyssa cried, suddenly. "By the Ancients," she whispered.
"They made micro-jumps, as well," Jon reported.
"Too late for them," Adrian said, grimly.
The starship shuddered and bounced as it plunged into the planet's atmosphere. Inertia dampers could only do so much. Even a larger ship would have suffered from the buffeting, but it would have been worse due to the larger surface area for the winds to slam against. It was the worst case of clear air turbulence Adrian had ever experienced; without the dampers, it would have been much, much worse. The ride finally smoothed out when the starship penetrated the target layer and shot off like a bullet from a gun in the roaring mass of wind and gas.
"Well, that was fun," Jon commented.
Gabe stumbled into the cockpit. "Are you quite through shaking the ship?" He did not look well. His normally dark complexion appeared to be a few shades lighter.
"Sorry, Gabe. Just getting started," Adrian apologized.
"Now what?" Jon asked. "We wait until they just go away?"
"If they are able to track the power signature of the battlesuits as Adrian thinks, I doubt they will simply give up and go away," the Sorceress pointed out.
All the indicators pointed to the enemy being either something new, or something old. Adrian was betting on something old. Incredibly old. Ancient battlestars, obsolete battlecruisers, and who knew what other old tech was being uncovered, upgraded and put into service. To what end? What was the ultimate goal here? Lots of pieces, but they didn't fit. The overall picture would become clearer only when more pieces of this puzzle were revealed. In the meantime, he was betting that the planet's atmosphere being rich in heavy metals would make it harder for the enemy to detect them. However, it would also make it harder for them to spot the enemy.
A proximity alarm blared on Anyssa's sensor panel. She silenced the alert and tried to resolve where the alert had come from. A subtle vibration began in the deck plates. The intensity rapidly increased as another sound filled the air. Something was approaching. Something big.
Anyssa looked up at the wraparound display in front of her just in time to see a dark mass flash past, heading deeper into the atmosphere. The wake of the object's passing buffeted the Ladyhawke for a few moments before the ship settled down again.
"What the hell was-" Jon began.
An explosion rattled the starship and sent it tumbling. Miriam and Adrian struggled to bring the ship back under control. Finally, human and AI brought the starship back around. More explosions rattled the bulkheads, but they were further away. The initial strike plus the jetstream had blasted the Ladyhawke far enough away that the follow-up attacks were off the mark.
"Okay," Gabe gasped, once his stomach and nerves had finally settled down. "What the hell was that?"
"Sensors indicate some sort of magneto charge," Miriam reported.
"Like a depth charge but for atmosphere," Apone guessed.
"Correct. Those were only low-power yields. Just enough to attempt locating us."
"And if we get hit by one at full power?" Apone asked.
Miriam paused before answering. "There is a greater than ninety percent chance that only one, or perhaps two, charges could destroy us. Especially if they detonate in close succession."
"Picking up something metallic closing in," Anyssa reported. She transferred the coordinates of the contact to Adrian and the Sorceress.
Adrian snapped the control stick to the right and shoved it forward, slamming the throttles to the firewall. The starship reacted instantly, diving down and away. Shockwaves from several explosions reached out for the diving ship, but Adrian's quick reaction meant the attack failed.
"Well, that didn't take long," Adrian commented.
"You expected them to come in after us?" Jon asked.
"If they are somehow able to track the battlesuits by their energy signature, it stands to reason that they will not simply give up and go away when they can't find us," Sorceress explained.
"Miriam was right," Anyssa said, studying her board. "The magnitude of those detonations was on par with being capable of disabling the ship with one or two blasts."
Gabe mused. "Capture rather than kill. That is disturbing."
Anyssa turned to the scientist. "How so?"
"If they intended to destroy us, I doubt they would go easy on those depth charges. If the enemy is from a thousand years ago, and the technology we've seen so far supports that, then they may want to add the battlesuits to their arsenal," Gabe explained.
If anyone would know, he was the one. The technological advances gleaned from the Eternia's computer banks had his team salivating. That paled in comparison to the advancements offered by the tech in the battlesuits.
"More likely the order is something along the lines of 'capture if possible, destroy if necessary,'" the colonel pointed out. "If I were calling the shots, that is what I would do. I wouldn't waste resources trying to capture the suits if it became clear capture was not an option."
Proximity alarms screamed, followed closely by several explosions. The starship bucked in the shockwave from the first detonation. Adrian lost control as shockwaves from the second and third charges struck. The waves forced the starship deeper into the thick atmosphere where the pressure relentlessly gripped the hull, like being stuck in a vise.
"Drive failure in number two engine," Adrian announced through gritted teeth.
Engine numbering was from aft of the aircraft facing forward, left to right. Number two was the one at the top of the vertical support. An aft view showed a trail of smoke from the affected engine. In a normal atmosphere that would lead an enemy back to them. In the turbulent jet streams of this planet, the eddies and currents blew away that trail fifty yards behind the ship. There would be nothing visual to lead an enemy to them.
Adrian was about to look away when something in the view caught his eye. The muted tans, browns, and other earth tones gradually darkened. Suddenly, a massive shape punched through the swirling clouds straight at them.
Ignoring the blaring alarms, Adrian slammed the throttles to the firewall once again and executed a climbing turn. He was not sure how much pressure the composite Etherium hull could take, but he was damn sure he did not want to find out the hard way. Using the current, Adrian managed to gain speed and altitude. The maneuver took the ship out of the line of fire just as the enemy launched two more weapons.
Miriam reported that the detonating weapons had been at full power. Apparently, the enemy was through with trying to disable their prey. She also advised not to push the damaged engine too much or it would fail entirely.
A new contact approached from above. The other battlecruiser made its move, streams of plasma bolts punctured the clouds seeking the prey. They missed.
Anyssa spotted a particularly dense mass of heavier metals and directed Adrian to it. It did not take long for the enemy to catch on, but the larger mass of their ships made them bulky and harder to maneuver in the atmosphere. That gave Adrian all the advantage he needed.
For the moment, they had eluded their pursuers.
"Enough of this," Adrian growled. "Time for the hunters to become the hunted!"
"I hope you have a plan," Sorceress said. "Our usual 'making it up as we go' doesn't seem to be working."
"We know they can track the suits. At these ranges, they don't need that capability if they can scan a metallic mass when not in a particularly dense concentration of heavy metals," Adrian mused. "What we need is another type of detector."
"We seem to be a little short of options," Gabe pointed out. He pulled up a menu of the available senor systems on the tactical table.
"Ah, but we do," Adrian crowed. "It's down in the forward cargo hold."
The Sorceress craned her head around. "War Wing?"
Adrian shook his head. "Falcon."
It took several moments of thinking about the suit and what it was capable of, but realization dawned on her face. "Falcon's systems enhance magical abilities-"
"Which can be used to sense not only people-"
"But also, objects. And with no effective range limitations-"
"We have the equivalent of a technological bloodhound."
Jon snapped, irritably, "You do realize neither of you has said a complete sentence."
Sorceress slapped the release for the four-point safety harness and climbed out of the navigator's station. She paused at the pilot's station, asking," Combat?"
"Stealth."
The woman nodded and continued aft. His answer told her what mode the bring the battlesuit up in. They were currently in a configuration the suits had never be designed for, referred to as combat mode. The stealth mode was a glowing blue orb with a ring of six points surrounding it attached to a heavy silver chain. Despite the small size, Falcon would still be able to assist her operator in seeking out the enemy and directing Adrian to them.
Adrian released his harness, getting up and moving aft to the tactical table. He called up sensor maps of the heavier concentrations of metals, jetstream patterns and anything else he could use for his plan. The deeper one went into the atmosphere, the greater the pressure one would experience as they approached the planet's core. The germ of an idea began to take root in Adrian's mind. Whether or not the enemy could be tricked into playing along was a different matter.
The Sorceress joined him at the table while he was studying a likely area to set the ambush. Falcon hung around her neck from the heavy silver chain. The orb in the ring of points was dark. "So, what is the plan?"
Adrian touched a control activating the table's other display function. A square in the ceiling over the table brightened. Together with the table a three-dimensional image resolved within the field. Dull colors making up the planet's atmosphere swirled about in eddies and currents. Adrian's accumulated data was overlaid on the image. He ordered Miriam to begin evasive maneuvers using the plan he had just drawn up.
"Given that the enemy seems to be able to track the power signature of the battlesuits, they have an advantage over us. I want to turn that against them." Adrian gestured to the holo-display. "I want to suck one of those ships into this region, disable it and let gravity do the rest."
Gabe perked up. "If you destroy the engines, the gravitational pull will drag the enemy ship down deep enough to crush it." He smiled at the simplicity of the plan. Physics at its most basic.
"Are you sure this will work?" Sorceress asked, unease showing on her face. "If the timing is off, we could end up on the wrong end of one of those charges."
"Only one way to find out!" Adrian declared, grinning. He shut down the projector and returned to his station.
"And I thought it was bad when the colonel was on the jazz," Apone groused.
"He's as unsure about the plan as I am. He just doesn't want to show it," Sorceress replied. She returned to her station and strapped in.
"Everyone set?" Adrian asked. He looked around to make sure everyone was buckled up for safety in the event the inertia dampers hiccupped or outright failed. Seeing everyone was ready, Adrian turned back to the controls and began the game of cat and mouse.
The brief time Falcon had been activated to turn her into the medallion had not been enough for the enemy to lock on to their location. That changed when the Sorceress started using the psychic link all six operators shared with their respective battlesuits to power Falcon up and down as the plan required.
Sorceress did not touch the controls. She leaned back in her seat, closed her eyes and cast her senses outside of the starship. She briefly saw the Ladyhawke from the outside, pausing to take in the graceful way the starship moved under Adrian's guiding hand. Sorceress turned away when the ship passing into a dense cloud of metallic particles and gas and sought out the enemy starship hunting for them.
She had done this countless times in the past, mainly to look at areas of Eternia she could not travel to in human form during her stewardship of Castle Grayskull. Sorceress' consciousness drifted outward by force of will. Once she had figured out how to move her awareness around, it had become second nature. Sorceress simply looked in a direction she wished to travel and 'shoved' in that direction. When she had accepted General Hammond's invitation to join his granddaughter's swimming lessons, Sorceress realized moving her awareness around in this way was a lot like changing direction in a swimming pool by shoving off from the wall in whatever direction one wished to go.
The freedom soaring around like this was even more liberating than flying in falcon form… Adrian's voice snapped her back to the task at hand. Reluctantly, the Sorceress got back on mission.
"Anything?" Adrian asked. He knew the Sorceress could hear him while she appeared to be asleep. This was not like the out-of-body experience she had once described.
"No," she answered slowly. "Falcon is not yet at a power level that they can detect. We are searching for the lower threshold now."
Something large and menacing prowled beyond a dark tan mass of clouds streaked with pale shades of pink and a bit of white. Pushing forward, her awareness pierced the mass to see what lay inside. She pulled up short, issuing a soft cry in surprise. There before her was the ugly mass of warship that hunted for them.
"I see it."
"The warship?"
"Yes. There is only one in this direction. Outward from our flightpath. The other is outside my range. Or in a different direction."
"Describe it," Adrian requested.
Everyone else, even Miriam, remained quiet. Adrian had explained what was to take place; they had practiced this in the past at the Pretoria Research Station on Val-kyre. It worked best with only one person responding to the Sorceress every time. It prevented confusion and did not distract her from whatever task she was performing.
"It is an ugly vessel. Utilitarian in form and function. Not the streamlined shape of the Ladyhawke. Or the angular grace of a battlestar. The power radiating from it is intense. I can't judge the level properly, but Falcon says it may give a battlestar a run before being destroyed."
"So, it can definitely kill us if they choose."
"Easily."
Vaguely aware of Falcon's presence, Sorceress gradually increased Falcon's power level. Although the stealth mode by design muted the energy signature, the AI and her operator could use the magical energy fields permeating the galaxy to mimic the suit's stronger emanations in the other forms.
For almost a minute, there was no reaction from the alien vessel. It continued to creep along in their search pattern. Suddenly, it paused as if uncertain. Or maybe scanning. Sorceress upped the energy level a bit and was rewarded with another focused movement in the enemy.
"We believe we have found the threshold," Sorceress reported. "Start your run."
Adrian turned the starship onto a course for the massive heavy metal cloud chosen for the ambush. It existed in a dead pocket created by the jetstreams swirling about. Gabe wanted to study the phenomena, but this was not the time for that sort of thing.
"Send up the flare," Adrian ordered.
In response, Sorceress gathered enough magical energy to gradually increase the false energy signature as if Falcon were powering up. The intensity tapered off as the Ladyhawke flew away from the enemy warship. The enemy, in turn, followed sensing that it had once again found their quarry.
Sorceress did not give a running commentary. Drawing back her awareness, Sorceress could see the area where Adrian was setting the ambush. All that was required of her was to get the enemy to bite on the bait. He would do the rest. She tuned out the low dialogue between Adrian, Anyssa and Miriam as they coordinated the attack. With the first warship thinking it was moving in for the kill, she cast about looking for the other ship lurking somewhere in the roiling mass of gas and metal particles.
Ladyhawke sank into the dense cloud, pushed along by RCS thrusters. It wasn't long before the ship dropped into a hovering position close to the bottom of the deformed bubble of stagnant gas and particles. The pressure on the hull was extreme, but not beyond the designed tolerances. Val-kyrie engineers almost always overengineered their designs. As such, Adrian knew there was some leeway in the pressure tolerance so he could press closer to the liquified core of the planet. This was the spot where he planned to push one, maybe both, of the enemy ships into a death plunge, into the intense gravity where it would be crushed.
Vibrations slowly increased throughout the hull. Indications that something large was approaching from somewhere above. Adrian glanced over his shoulder at Anyssa, who nodded. One enemy vessel had arrived. Miriam picked up active sensor beams, but they were directed above and away from where the Ladyhawke lay in wait.
Accurate readings were impossible with all the heavy metals interfering, but there were glimmers of coherence. Adrian slowly brought the starship up behind the enemy warship. The visuals on the wraparound screens displayed nothing but faded colors of gas shot with particles. The sensors, however, intermittently picked out the target above and ahead at a distance of about ten-thousand meters.
Adrian crept up slowly, weapons charging, outer doors opening. Vague shadows of something dark resolved ahead. While visuals were still useless, the sensors were clearing up. All at once, the small projection above Adrian's console gave an image resolution at near eighty percent. The years of experience inherited from Kragor in the knowledge transfer from War Wing gave Adrian the feeling that this was the best chance he was going to get.
"Now," Adrian said. His voice was low and even without a trace of emotion.
Sorceress powered up Falcon to her stealth form's full intensity and magnified it to battle mode power level.
The reaction by the enemy warship was immediate and severe. The ship jerked to a halt as it sensed the danger and tried to come about. This deep in the atmosphere, the gravity made an inherently sluggish response time in the larger ship even worse.
Adrian caressed the throttle buttons under the ring and pinky fingers of his left hand. Torpedoes shot away from the port and starboard launchers. He followed that up by squeezing the other pair of buttons under the middle and forefingers. Twin streams of plasma bolts cut paths through the gas straight into the target's massive engine bells, alight with yellow fire.
Twin detonations from the quantum torpedoes set to maximum yield blasted holes through the weak rear armor on either side of the center engine nozzle. Then the plasma bolts streaked in to further savage the delicate systems hidden behind the armor plates. The yellow plasma fire in the bells died away in seconds. Reaction controls systems faltered and failed.
Adrian flung the Ladyhawke up and around to deliver a scathing broadside of torpedoes. The weapons had been reset for proximity detonation. Successive concussion waves shoved the stricken warship deeper into the danger zone. With its engines destroyed, there was no way the ship would survive.
"Adrian!" Sorceress suddenly screamed; eyes widened as far as they could go.
The pair had been working together, training together, long enough that a simple look or tone of voice could convey more than a lengthy description.
Figuring that the other warship might show up once he began his attack, Adrian had kept his starship constantly moving. At the Sorceress' shout, Adrian slammed the throttles to the firewall, the starship responding instantly. Arrowing out of the clouds from above and behind, the other warship darted down at the Ladyhawke like a shark diving in for the kill.
Taking a chance, Adrian screamed in close to the disabled warship and looped around under the dying vessel. Anyssa gasped and slammed herself back in her seat when the image of the dying vessel's hull flashed by uncomfortably close on the wall monitors in front of her.
The second warship rushed in at the wrong angle. The commander thought the explosions stemmed from the other ship engaging and disabling their prey. When the ship plowed through the dead zone, it flew straight at its stricken companion, slowly dropping toward crush depth. The commander tried in vain to alter course, but it was too late. Even if the commander could manage to miss their disabled companion, his ship would have flown straight down into the heavier gravity zone, where it would have been trapped and eventually crushed.
Warship two slammed broadside into warship one, sending the dying ship rebounding deeper into the deadly gravity well. Warship two flipped over and dropped stern-first out of the dead zone. It launched two torpedoes before the pair disappeared into the denser mass of gas and debris.
After Adrian cleared over the top of the warship he had disabled, he aimed for a higher altitude and mashed the thumb button on the throttle, igniting the boosters. Ladyhawke slowed noticeably, several hundred meters over the falling pair of enemy warships as gravity clawed greedily at all three vessels. The spasm-launch of the torpedoes closed in and detonated a hundred and fifty yards away almost simultaneously. Shockwaves slammed mercilessly into the Ladyhawke. Bulkheads rattled, the ship bucked and shook violently, but continued its upward climb. Minutes passed as the altitude continued to increase. Adrian breathed a sigh of relief when it became clear the enemy had not survived the encounter.
"Just before we lost contact, I picked up the distinct sounds of bulkheads collapsing. Possible numerous explosions," Miriam reported. Her bloodlust was apparently satiated for the moment.
"Well, that was a first," Adrian commented to no one in particular.
"Which part?" Gabe inquired, gamely.
"Being saved by the enemy trying to destroy us with its last gasp."
Gabe nodded. "Those explosions gave us the extra push we needed to get out."
"Yes. It was a gamble going that deep, but with more mass in those ships, I figured we would have a better chance to get back out."
"I never want to see the hull of an enemy vessel that close again for as long as I live," Anyssa said.
"Are you alright?" Apone asked.
"As soon as my stomach returns to its proper place. I swear I could see the seams in the hull plates." Anyssa shivered at the thought of how close they had come to scraping the hull of the enemy warship.
"Well, of course you could," Miriam injected. "The screen was set for magnification level three."
Which meant the range had been wider than she had first thought. That little bit of knowledge did not settle Anyssa's nerves much.
Ladyhawke sedately emerged from the clouds at the planet's northern pole like a starlet sweeping a room. Adrian lined up for the first leg of the hyperspace jumps and throttled up to three-quarters power to get out of the planet's gravity well. He turned over navigation to the AI. Miriam made the first jump minutes later.
A vessel three times more massive than the two lost battlecruisers rounded the horizon of the planet. Its commander called back to Origin Point for direction on how to proceed. The loss of two battlecruisers, while unexpected, was of little consequence.
The disciples of Kragor were evidently more capable than first thought. Hardly a surprise. Unit Six Sixty-six would have been more surprised if the two Guardians had not somehow either destroyed the ships, escaped, or had done both. Since they had accomplished both, that meant the successors of the original suit operators were more capable than the originals. That fact also hinted at the experiment's possible success. While Six Sixty-six did not know the details of what the original Guardians had been trying to accomplish, it was clear there had been some sort of success. Further investigation was required. More testing of their capabilities and tactics would be necessary in order to devise a plan to engage and destroy them. Capturing the technology embedded withing their frames would be a bonus, but the primary directive to destroy them took precedence.
Unit Six Sixty-six already knew how to draw Kragor's successors out. The plan would also test the defenses of several planets to see how much resistance its forces would encounter when it went after the primary objective. Six Sixty-six knew that its forces would need upgrading in order to survive the coming war. It had already modified the mothball fleet and new units as much as possible. It needed to acquire new sources of information and possible tech to maintain the slim technological advantage currently enjoyed. While it had not been a factor in the Galactic War, much had changed over the last thousand years. One location in particular had become a very lucrative source of knowledge and power, if the information gleaned from the attacked ships, facilities and even a few planetary stations was to be believed. Only one place other than Horde World and the new Val-kyrie home world could provide what Unit Six Sixty-six required to defeat the Guardians, Horde Prime and anyone else who would stand in the way of the unit's ultimate objective.
That place was located on planet Eternia.
Castle Grayskull.
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