Episode 620: Hammerfall, Part Four
Part 1, 2, 3, 4, Special Features
Nika opens a line to the engine room.
Nika: Rina. Get us a little more power so that if we have to move fast, we can.
Rina: (over comms) Yes, ma'am.
Nika: I don’t like this. At all.
Joshua: I don't like it. But it's … cool.
Joshua is staring out the bridge windows from the co-pilot's seat and even Nika has to admit, the view is awe-inspiring. However, as a war veteran, she knows in her bones that such a view is usually a harbinger of bad news. And whatever that big ship on our long-range sensors is, it just took out three Quan Fus. Quan Fus at least the size of our ship. Totally blown away.
Kiera: I think we need to be afraid. Very afraid.
Nika: Joshua? I have some concerns that if we know something big is coming down and there's blaming a lot of stuff on Reavers, this is going to get very brutal and bloody very fast.
Joshua: So the question is—do we know? If what Omar said is the case, it could be anything.
Nika: I was under the impression that what he thought was coming down was our side pummeling on their side.
Joshua: That wasn't exactly what he said.
Nika: No it wasn't.
Joshua: I think he was implying it was for our side. The question is, what?
Nika: I don't know.
Could it be the news about the Reavers? Or that the Alliance is putting out news about the Reavers to try to win people away from the Independent cause? Joshua doesn't think so. Nika just can't shake the feeling that something big is about to happen, that a hammer is about to hit us all and hit us hard. Back in the engine room, Rina fumbles and the engines do not power up to the next level. Rina apologizes over the comms and tries again. Of course, she's not without her own speculations on what's going on outside. Based on the running commentary from the bridge, she's convinced that it's Reavers coming. Why else would some of the ships be moving over the high-population areas to protect them? Nika tells her engineer to cool it, we don't really know. She orders Kiera to make sure all our passengers are strapped down for their safety.
Nika: Especially the kids. Bring them to the crew deck. Make sure they're strapped down as close to the escape pods as possible.
Outside, the cruisers start moving into a new position and the other ships shift to give them a clear field of fire. The cruisers fire a raft of missiles and the Black is filled with long white streamers as the missiles streak away. Tracking their trajectory, we see coming down the pike a HUGE freighter. It's so huge it's just soaking up the hits and it keeps on coming, barreling down on the 2nd Fleet like a monstrous cat on a flock of pigeons. Other ships in the Fleet start firing, hoping to stop it. Nothin' doin'. It keeps coming on. We plot its trajectory and we see it's not aimed for the fueling queue or the station, but is more aimed at the massive Fleet. Even so …
Nika: If that freighter is jam packed with explosives, I want to make sure we're far enough away so we don't get caught in the blast wave.
Pieces are falling off the freighter with every hit it takes, trailing ore and machinery parts and junk. With so many ships in the fleet firing on it, the freighter is turned into a giant shotgun shell … with the attendant shotgun pellets that goes with. The freighter's engines are still pushing it forward and everything that's falling off that ship is going at velocity.
Kiera: What is that ship doing?
Nika: Making a big mess.
The freighter disintegrates under the barrage, finally scattering into thousands of pieces. The comms chatter outside erupts into cheers and whistles of victory: We got it. Wooo!
Arden: I guess it was a big distraction.
Rina: (dour) No. Wait for it. Just wait.
Then … one, two, three, and even MORE vessels pop up on our long range sensors and they are moving CONSIDERABLY faster than the freighter. The new vessels start moving around to flank the Fleet and also some of them peel off for the orbital space station.
Right where we are.
Rina: We need to move.
Joshua: I want to see what happens first.
What happens now? The new vessels are revealed to be large freighters as well, only they're faster and there are fifty, sixty of them. They're getting shot to pieces by the Fleet and there's a ton more crap flying everywhere causing damage, smashing into various things. If the initial freighter was a single shotgun shell fired into a crowded room, this is worse. Much worse. Ten of the freighter vessels peel away before they can be hit and moving in tight formation, they shoot forth massive conical beams. The light intersects a Trebuchet and the Alliance vessel goes dark and starts to founder.
EMP array. And wait … didn't we deliver the goods to make it?
Kiera: That looks really familiar.
Joshua: Okay, I've seen enough.
The EMP array shoots at a dozen more targets and the ships thus hit go dark and go down, ramming other ships near them in slow motion. The comm chatter turns into calls for help, for evasive maneuvers, for new vectors. The Fleet scrambles to compensate but it's stumbling, faltering under the EMP blasts. The rest of the attacking freighters barrel onward through the formation, throwing more pieces of debris and sowing chaos and destruction in their wake. One, two, three ships are rammed and start breaking up, fires on decks, whole swathes venting to space. More of them fall and smaller ships start scattering, trying to get out of the way. It's sickening to watch, yet like with a train wreck, one cannot look away. Nika shakes off her paralysis first.
Nika: We're getting out of here. Now.
Rina recovers her mojo and boosts Equinox's engines into higher gear. Nika backs us out of the fuel queue and starts swinging us around to anywhere but here.
Arden: I thought we were staying til the end.
Joshua: No. Staying to the end has us dying.
The comm chatter is still screaming over our speakers: They're coming straight for us. They're not stopping!
Another ship is rammed, cracking asunder and going to pieces. Fire and debris and personnel scatter away into the Black, morbid candy from a gruesome piñata.
Nika: Oh my God …
There's no pulsing here. We have to win clear of the Fleet first. Outside, everything has gone crazy. The mighty 2nd Fleet of the Alliance is getting hammered to bits. The carnage pushes outward, an inexorable wave swallowing everything in its path. Ships, both civilian and military, are scattering, dodging, dipping, desperately trying to escape it. All hope of traffic control is lost. It's an all-out rout. It's every ship for itself.
It's Chaos Incarnate and somehow Nika has to pilot our ship through it to get us clear.
Nika flies Equinox through the meat grinder and Arden pulls out his smartcomm and starts taking a video of what's going on outside. He's getting some fantastic footage. One of the attacking freighters slams into an Alliance cruiser and both ships break up. The majority of the freighters aren't firing any weapons, they ARE the weapons, flying full speed into the fray, swiping vessels or outright ramming them. The ten-ship group with the EMP fires off more blasts and the occasional flight of fighter ships zips by but overall, the sky outside is nothing but spinning steel and fire. Nika dodges the debris as best she can, trying to line us up for a run for Aesir.
Nika: Keep an eye on the sensors, Arden.
Cuz it's a killing box out there. And we don't want to be here when the victor starts mopping up. Nika calls for more power and Rina does her best to deliver it. Kiera takes over camera duty for Arden to free him for the sensors. Joshua is assigned to navigation. Not that they are much help—the sensors are crowded with pings by all the ships in the vicinity and navigation is pretty much useless until we win clear of it. And we don't get by unscathed. WAM! a big chunk of debris hits our hull. We're armored, so we don't suffer a breach, but even so, it is damage. We get hit again.
Kiera: Nika!
Nika: Working on it.
The impacts spur us to greater efforts. It takes some insane crazy flying from Nika, a sharp eye on the sensors, Rina and Beglan busting their balls in the engine room, along with a few finger dents left on dashboards and consoles, but we make it through the chaos intact. On the bridge, everyone wilts in their chairs and breathes. Joshua turns around toward Nika.
Joshua: You are amazing.
Kiera jumps from her chair and lands a smacker on Nika's head.
Kiera: MMWAH! Cookies!
And she's off to the galley to grab some. The sensors show a massive blotch on the screen—the remains of the Fleet behind us—and the Black is lit by explosions. Joshua exhorts someone to get aft to film it. Kiera returns and shoves a plate of cookies into Nika's lap and scampers aft again to film it. Everyone is riding high on the adrenaline of our narrow escape and we spend the next little while giddy from it. We check our passengers—everyone's fine. About twenty minutes later we get another sensor reading. It shows us about 50 smaller ships, like 2000 to 5000 tons, zooming past us. Alliance? Independent? They're going Core-ward. Likely Alliance streaking home to Mama.
Nika: B'bye, boys!
Joshua: Wow. That was amazing.
Kiera: (to Arden) Here's your camera.
Rina: Nice flyin', Captain.
Behind us, the ships of the 2nd Fleet continue to burn. The Independent forces are mopping the proverbial floor with them. We're a little banged up but we're out of there and still alive. Nice flying indeed.
Monday, 17 May 2523
En route to Aesir
It's a four day journey to Aesir. On the way we gather around the table in the conference room and listen to the news reports as they come in. A massive attack on Paquin has severely hampered the Fleet with significant damage. The orbital space station was destroyed. The loss of life numbers in the thousands. Rina searches for and fails to find a list of ships destroyed. We have our own record of the ships destroyed via our camera film, but there were so many ships and so many dying simultaneously, it will be very hard to identify them and make a coherent list. We hope the IAV Aceso isn't one of them. We have a soft spot for the ship and its Commander, the man who fervently believed Joshua was his missing son, who Joshua was actually Borrowing when we met him on IAV Trafalgar. Luckily, we know Commander Wise isn't on Aceso, having left it a little while ago.
Other news: a package was delivered to Parliament on Londinium. The Border and the Rim worlds have officially declared their Independence. The Battle of Paquin was their first strike. This will not be their last if any attempt is made to continue the fight. The tone from the related articles is: Yeah. It ain't over.
Nika: Yeah. The fat lady hasn't sung yet.
Joshua: What I want to know is if we're in the military.
Silence. Nika avoids Joshua's eye. He breathes a laugh and tries again.
Joshua: Captain-captain? I asked if we were officially in the military now.
It takes her a minute. Nika gathers herself up and she looks at each of her crew in turn.
Nika: You're all going to have to make that choice for yourselves.
Joshua: Where you go, I go, Captain.
Rina: (nods at Joshua) Where he's goin', I'm goin'. (to Nika) Where you're goin', I'm goin'. You're the best damned Captain I've served under.
Nika: Even if I decide to go to Blue Sun?
Rina: Yeah. So long as my family is safe and I'm sure they will be. I'm still going.
Nika looks at Kiera next.
Kiera: Go where the money is.
Nika: It ain't gonna be about the money, darlin'.
Kiera: It's never about the money, but I still say it.
Arden starts to laugh.
Arden: Should be, it just never is.
Kiera: I always say it.
Joshua: And he's going where all the wounded people are. It's pretty much decided that's where he's going to go.
Beglan: Wherever he goes people seem to get wounded. You're better than an ambulance. You get there as people are getting wounded.
It's a no-brainer where Arden's going. There's laughter around the table, despite the grim subject, and we sober. Our stance decided as a crew, we adjourn the meeting and get back to work. Aesir awaits us and beyond Aesir, a vastly changed 'Verse. The war, so long in coming, has finally arrived. Our side is chosen, the die is cast, and we of Equinox will face whatever Fate decrees as a consequence. As friends and crewmates. As husband and wife. As family.
And that's the way it should be.
Part 1, 2, 3, 4, Special Features
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