Asarlai Wars 1: Warrior Wench (26 page)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Vas gripped the command seat and bit her lip to keep the emotions out of her head and face. “Go! Gosta, send the command. We have to run. Any ship that can’t make it will be left behind. I don’t think our guests are going to like us very much at this point.”

The look on Gosta’s face made it clear that he knew what those two explosions had been. He got the refugee ships in line and in seconds all of them were fleeing toward the hypergate.

The
Warrior Wench
escaped through the opening of the destroyed gray ships after all of the others. For all of her bluster, Vas couldn’t let anyone be left behind, not after what it had cost to get them all out.

Xsit spun as her sensors picked up the Furies debris. Vas knew there were no life signs. She had already checked.

“Captain! Those were our Furies!”

“I know. Xsit, tell the refugee ships to stay on the heading.” Vas turned toward Mac. He wasn’t the sharpest of her crew, but it wouldn’t take him long to realize who had been on those ships. He was focused now on maneuvering through the debris, but Vas nodded at Terel to stand near him. More muttering was heard in the command deck as more people picked up on Xsit’s observation.

Vas finally opened a ship-wide comm. She had wanted to tell Mac and a few others privately, but she couldn’t have people distracted. Even getting away from the trap didn’t spell safety for them, not by a long shot.

“Attention.” Her voice sounded odd in her ears as she addressed the crew. “Those explosions you saw, and the firefight that preceded it, were two of our own using the Furies to grant all of us the chance to live. Deven—” Her voice caught as something hard and rock-like formed in her throat. “Deven and Jakiin gave their lives to save our company and those refugees out there. It is up to us to make sure that their lives were not lost in vain. We will deal with this loss when we are free. We aren’t free yet.”

The entire command deck was silent. A part of her soul curled up and died.

Xsit shook. “But, Captain… Deven? Jakiin? Couldn’t they—”

“Have survived that?” Vas steeled her voice. Right now she couldn’t be soft or she would fall apart. She finally realized what had been affecting her these last weeks. Deven. Bloody stars below, she had fallen in love with Deven. She crammed that horrific thought as deep into her head as she could.

“No. They couldn’t have. And I,
we
, don’t have the luxury right now of grieving a single individual, or even two. They died to save those refugees and us. We owe it to them to get everyone out alive.”

“Captain, we’ve got another problem.” Gosta pointed toward his screen as soon as she got close. “It looks like they’re trying to reopen their supergate.”

Vas swore as she watched the screen. The refugee ships were at the hypergate, but could only go through slowly. There was no way all of them could get through before that supergate opened. Who knew what was going to come through it, but with their luck it would be more gray cruisers. At this point, even one more could destroy everything Deven and Jakiin died for.

“Tell the refugee ships to keep going through the gates. We’re going to have to hang back. Once they get through, they need to go to the Zarlan system, but make a few hops in case someone is tracking them.” She turned back to the large screen.

The two remaining heavy gray cruisers were still hanging back, but the smaller ships were moving closer to the refugee ships. “Mac, move us toward those two ships over there.” Two of the destroyed enemy ships were leaking enough plasma to blow up half of the quadrant if even a pop gun went off. No one would be stupid enough to risk firing on them there. Neither could the
Warrior Wench
stay there for long, but they’d cross that bridge later. Mac silently moved the ship into position. Vas knew he was hurting too. Jakiin and Deven were two of his best friends. Nevertheless, none of them had time to grieve.

They needed a new plan. The two remaining heavy cruisers were moving closer. Any advantage the
Warrior Wench
had gained by destroying the smaller ships was going to be lost quickly. They needed to stay here to defend the refugees’ backsides until right before that supergate opened. Xsit pulled up the recorded steps it went through when it closed; she could reverse it and get their opening sequence. The
Warrior Wench
would know when to move.

“How much heavy ordinance do we have left?” Vas was exceedingly grateful that the
Warrior Wench
had been stocked with even more ammo than her beloved
Victorious Dead
had been. However, she feared that even those advanced stores might be gone at this point.

The gunnery officer turned to her with a slow nod. “We’re okay. We were mostly using the lower grades once the cruisers backed off. The heavy stuff seemed a bit overkill for the smaller ships.”

Vas smiled. That was her gunny, most cautious weapons person ever known. That resolved one issue. They had enough to hit whatever came through that supergate right at the apex of the transfer. That should destroy anything trying to come through, not to mention shatter the supergate itself. In theory. The problem was, they couldn’t even try with those two gray cruisers coming after them.

Judging by the slow pace of the sequencing, the supergate was going to take at least another few minutes to open, which was most likely why the heavy cruisers were now coming closer. Clearly whatever had held them back before ended once the Furies took out three-quarters of their ships. They would blow the
Warrior Wench
out of the sky the moment they left the plasma bank.

Something was going to have to hold off those two cruisers.

Vas turned and ran toward the docking bay corridor as a thought hit her. “Xsit, when that supergate signals pre-opening I need you to tell Gosta. Gosta, run the
Warrior Wench
as close to that supergate as you can without risking explosion. Fire everything we have at that supergate once the event horizon is breached. Blow those bastards out of the sky.” Vas saw her gunny go white. The idea of throwing everything at anything was foreign to gunnies, especially hers.

“But, Vas, those ships will nail us the minute we break free of this pile of radioactive mess.”

Vas stopped. She couldn’t just run out.

“I know.” She looked slowly into the eyes of each one of her deck officers. Her family. “I’m going to take the last Fury and ram it down those cruisers’ throats.” She was the only person still onboard who could fly a Fury so at least she knew there’d be no arguing. “Hopefully they’ll have a healthy respect for it after the damage Deven and Jakiin caused their fleet. If I can hold them back long enough without engaging, I will.” She left it unspoken what would happen if they decided not to back off from a single ship, even a Fury. “I want you to follow the refugees to Zarlan, stay there for two days.” She forced a smile that tried to encompass everyone. “I will find you.”

Vas turned away quickly and ran down the corridor toward the fighter ships. She’d sworn at Deven when he’d brought the Furies on board. More than a few captains felt the monster ships were cursed. But he might have very well saved all of them by his actions.

Vas had gone through the ships when Deven wasn’t paying attention. This third one had some cosmetic issues, but was solid. Cursed or not, they were amazing ships and grand examples of overkill in warship design.

Saying a prayer to any deity who decided to listen, Vas threw on a flight suit and climbed on board. The Furies weren’t designed by humans, or even humanoids. They were an ancient design of a lost race, one that had been futzed with until they could accommodate humanoid shapes. Still, everything was just a tad too big. Made Vas feel like a little kid caught in the grownups’ vehicle. She finished buckling herself in and prepped the launch sequence. No matter how much she loved commanding her ship, she still loved the thrill of a one-person fighter. The excitement of the dock doors opening to the vacuum of space, the stars practically daring her to come out and play. This was what she went into space for.

The final check held clear and she keyed in the launch sequence. She almost stopped it when it looked like someone else was down in the bay, but then the shape she thought she saw vanished. None of her people would be stupid enough to come down here, and anyone who was deserved to be flung out to space when she launched.

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but the Fury handled the launch with amazing smoothness. A stab of sorrow hit her as she immediately wanted to call Deven and tell him. What had he thought when he and Jakiin lifted up? Roughly shoving aside those thoughts, Vas spun the ship and headed away from the
Warrior Wench
. They only had minutes before that supergate opened. Hopefully she could keep the heavy cruisers out of the way that long.

Suddenly the ship rocked. Well, it seemed like it did. In fact it was holding course, but two Flits shot by it making it seemed like it had rolled.

“Who in the hell is that? Get your asses back to the ship now.” Vas might not know who they were, but that gold trim could only have come from the
Warrior Wench
. Who in the hell decorated fighter ships?

Two more Flits burst out, joining the first two just to the sides of her.

“Answer me now or by all that’s unholy I will blow you apart myself.” Vas swore.

“Aw now, Captain, you wouldn’t want to do that. These are mighty pretty ships.” Mac’s voice was not a huge surprise.

“Goddamn it, Mac! Take these others back now. I don’t need you out here. You can’t hold against the cruisers.”

“We aren’t going to try.” Mac’s voice was smug. “And just what are you going to do to us if we don’t go back? Blow us up? Put us in the brig? Sorry, can’t do that, cuz we’re out here.”

“Vas, you need them.” Gosta’s voice broke in from the
Warrior Wench
.

“Damn it, you too, Gosta? Doesn’t anyone follow my orders?” Vas kept heading toward the cruisers. She didn’t have time to waste. And the rest of her crew knew that.

“I’d follow you to hell and back, Vas. We all would. But you’ve got more to handle than just the cruisers.” Gosta pinged over an image. “We got this right as you launched.”

The faint comm image showed a group of short-range flyers. Yet another heavy cruiser was on its way toward them, and this one still had its single-person fighters.

Chapter Thirty

Mac’s voice cut in. “You didn’t really think I would let you go out in a blaze of glory by yourself, did you?” His voice was clear, but Vas just hoped he wasn’t feeling guilty for not having been the one who went out with Deven. Mac was by far the best pilot they had. He might be trying to convince himself that if he had been the one who had gone out, Jakiin and Deven would still be alive. Of course, the fact that he had no idea how to fly a Fury wouldn’t stop him from feeling he could have saved everyone.

“Mac,” Vas started to say something to make him feel better, but couldn’t think of anything.

Mac cut her off. “Besides, if you try to chase us back we’ll all get blown to bits.”

Damn him. As much as she wanted to force him to go back, she was glad he was here. And she couldn’t go after the cruisers
and
fight off the twenty or so fighters who were winging their way toward them. Normally she would say the four Flits next to her couldn’t either. However, she had a guess who were in the other three. “I assume we’ve got the triplets here with us?” There were a few other pilots who were almost as skilled as Mac: Deven, Jakiin, herself, and a set of triplets from the Gyolin providence. They were truly terrifying when in the zone and judging by Mac’s confidence, that was who was flying with him.

“Aye, Captain!” All three answered instantly. Suicidal nut jobs, they sounded happy to be out here facing certain death. Actually, they probably were.

She shook her head with a sigh. They had a job to do. Hopefully they’d all make it out. But she had long ago stopped worrying about those under her command. She couldn’t do it in their line of work if she wanted to stay sane. Well, she thought she’d been able to.

“Fine. Mac, you have command of the triplets. Just hold off the fighters long enough for Gosta to blow up that supergate when it opens. No heroics.” Silence echoed back. “I mean it, you four. If you do anything to deliberately get yourselves killed I will hire a witch doctor to bring your shades back and keep them in a jar. Am I understood?”

The ‘aye captain’ that followed was tight and loud. Mac didn’t have the same beliefs as the triplets, but he went along with it. The triplets’ religion was very specific in dealing with the afterlife. They weren’t afraid of what would happen to them in this life—they were terrified of what someone might try to do to them in the next one though. Knowing as much as you could about your crew came in damn handy sometimes.

“Excellent. Now, ladies and gentlemen, we have a job to do.”

Vas gunned her engines and charged the approaching cruisers. One held back, perhaps waiting to see if the first one could handle her ship. Or its captain recognized the Fury before the forerunner did.

She fired a volley to make sure they understood completely what they were facing. No other ship around fired like a Fury. And with good reason. When Furies broke down, their firing mechanism was the first to go. Usually resulting in massive loss of life.

The approaching cruiser halted. Mac and the others shot off past her to engage the enemy fighters. Too bad they were only outnumbered eight to one; the enemy fighters wouldn’t last long.

She stopped firing and slowed down. As much as she craved to engage the cruisers in battle, to fully feel what this Fury could do, she knew she couldn’t do it. She had to keep them held here for just a few minutes longer. As long as they were focusing on her, they might not notice what the
Warrior Wench
was maneuvering to do. Actually, judging by the loose way they guarded their gates, they must not have had someone blow one up before.

There was a first for everything.

Light flashes to her left told her that Mac and the others had engaged the smaller fighters. She just prayed they were focusing on what she would do to them if they got themselves killed and kept the dramatic fighting to a minimum. Although, she felt the four out there probably had a better chance of surviving than she did.

The two cruisers still held back, one sending what had to have been two of its last fighters out to meet her. They had to be kidding. They were afraid that she could take down their cruisers so they sent out single fighters?

With a few choice swear words for idiotic cruiser captains, she moved toward the fighters. Their course had them heading for the
Warrior Wench
.

Vas was just about to open her guns when something made her stop. Deven had been her voice of reason many a time and it was as if he stepped in now.

Holding back, she set up every scan the Fury could send at the two enemy fighters. At first nothing, standard across the board. Then one little light pinged red.

Hidden explosives. The Fury’s computer systems cut through the electronic masking they’d laid on the ships. The two fighters were actually on autopilot with no one on board. They were also fixed with enough explosives to wipe out the
Warrior Wench
and anything else within a hundred specs. Most likely a combination of low yield explosives that could get through the
Wench
’s shield.

“Gosta, those fighters heading toward you are bombs. Obviously our friends aren’t worried about blowing up their supergate from the outside. Make sure you fire
inside
the opening when it happens. It’s going to be the only way to shut it.”

Gosta’s voice came back thin and scratchy. Either the Fury’s comm system was breaking down or more than likely the cruisers were scrambling communications. “How…stop…contact.”

Vas swore and rekeyed a message through the board. Hopefully it would get through. “Stay where you are. I’ll take them out.” And pray the shields on the Fury held, she didn’t add. “Keep with your mission.” Gosta was going to need all of his remaining weapons to take out that supergate.

Vas thought about telling Mac, but he and the others were fully engaged with their fighters. There would be no way for any of them to break free. Not to mention the shielding on the Fury would be a hell of a lot more than what was on the Flits.

The shielding.

Working furiously, Vas keyed in a sub-space code. One that should break down the shielding on the two fighter ships heading her way. What she was trying wouldn’t work if there had been real pilots onboard; they could re-code their shielding before she could get in. Her proximity alarm went off as the fighters closed in. She had plenty of time to move the Fury out of their way, but she couldn’t do it if she wanted to get through their shields. The klaxon sounded faster now as the ships came far too close.

“Yes!” Vas sent the code. Tense seconds went by as she spun the Fury out of the direct path. She couldn’t get far away but hopefully she’d be far enough.

The explosion sent her flinging about the cabin, sure the Fury wouldn’t hold. A second one followed that spun her in the direction of the cruisers. She’d gotten both of the fighters, but wasn’t sure if there was anything left in the Fury to fight off the big ships.

The cruisers didn’t think she had anything left. Both moved forward slowly, but they moved forward. A screeching filled Vas’s head-set. Finally, she oriented her ship and self enough to realize it was Mac screaming at her.

“Damn it, Mac, I’m all right. Stick to your own fight, and let me worry about mine.”

Vas cut the comm system. It was a distraction for her and Mac. One they couldn’t afford.

Hopefully, she was right. She flipped on the outer guns only to find they were jammed. The explosion of the two bomb fighters had wiped out half her firepower.

The cruisers dropped speed as she got power back to the systems. They had no way of knowing how much of the Fury was still operating, but with the systems coming on they had to know she was still in the fight.

Swearing at the Universe in general, Vas squeezed off a round from the inner guns. The outer guns would have been more impressive but with them out, she’d just have to go for quantity over quality. She decided to make an example of the forerunner and sent all of the aft torpedoes toward it. Judging by the lights on her console it looked like they all fired. In typical Fury fashion the ship rocked like a beast when the shots fired, but they got off.

And made it through the cruiser’s shields and slammed into its left side, taking out a landing bay and what appeared to be its weapon array. “Woooo!” Vas yelled, forgetting her own comm was off. The Furies had a reputation for being able to slip through many ships’ shields. Their potential instability offset that advantage, but when you didn’t have a choice, you took what you could.

An explosion from the left drew her attention. Three of her fighters were hovering over the fourth. The ship hadn’t made the explosion, but if three were trying to protect it, it had to be seriously damaged. They were limited in what they could do to fight the remaining enemy ships and still protect the dead Flit. Vas’s systems couldn’t scan through all the debris, but she had to assume that the remaining three pilots could see a life sign in the fourth ship and that only the ship was dead, not its pilot.

Even though it had felt like hours, the supergate behind them was just finally reaching its apex in the opening sequence. Since both the uninjured cruiser as well as the remaining fighters were ignoring it, Vas assumed they hadn’t figured out what the
Warrior Wench
’s real goal was.

Crap, four enemy fighters were breaking away from the ones engaging Mac and the triplets. They were heading right for the supergate.

“Damn it, break off. Two of you have got to get those ships. They can damage the
Wench
before the supergate opens.”

“But, Captain,” Glazlie cut in, “we can’t leave Mac.”

Vas took a deep breath. She was losing way too many people she loved on this trip. Someone would pay. However, right now she had to save far more than her favorite rocket jockey. “Go. You have to stop those ships. Now.”

Vas cut the comm as the second cruiser started to edge forward. Apparently the fact that the first cruiser had only been damaged, not blown out of the sky, was giving its captain balls.

Vas would take care of that little problem for him or her.

“Go now, all of you. I’ll cover Mac once I take care of big, bad, and ugly.”

Silence followed and Vas was afraid the triplets wouldn’t follow the command, but an instant later, the three Flits raced toward the enemy fighters.

Vas hoped that Mac had the common sense to play dead. She couldn’t take the time or chance to warn him. But if what she was going to try didn’t work, neither of them were going to survive anyway.

She spun the Fury around. Parts of what she really hoped weren’t important pieces flew around the cabin at her rapid move. She kept Mac’s dead ship behind her as she charged the injured cruiser. The undamaged ship was too far away to stop her, but its rapid change in direction, away from them, told her the captain had figured out what she was going to do. Perhaps his balls had started to shrink up.

Damn it, if that supergate doesn’t open soon we’re all fried
. Vas held course but kept her screens up to track the action behind her. Mac still hadn’t moved. The supergate past the
Warrior Wench
opened, just as the triplets caught the renegade fighters and blew them out of the sky. The three Flits broke formation, breaking off around the
Warrior Wench
to stay out of firing range.

The supergate opened, the clear shimmer indicating something was coming through.

Vas stayed on course for the burning enemy cruiser, but started cutting her speed.

Behind her, Gosta fired everything he had at the ship emerging out of the supergate. The explosions rocked even the enemy cruiser that was trying to make its escape.

Vas had to fight for control as the Fury spun on the concussion wave. She regained maneuverability and blasted away from the burning cruiser, only to have to dodge as Mac’s dead ship was flung past her.

“Damn it, Mac, are you alive? Say something.” She flew after his dead ship.

“You told me to shut up.” His voice was weak, obviously disoriented, but still his usually petulant self.

“Are you in your suit?” She had seconds to pull this off before his dead Flit would slam into the burning cruiser.

“Yeah, but—”

“No buts eject now. Damn you to hell, Mac, eject NOW.”

A normal Flit or fighter could never have picked up a single person at this distance, but thank god for Mac, the Fury was anything but normal.

Vas saw a tiny speck eject from the Flit. Without waiting for confirmation of what it was, she coded the Fury to grab it with a tractor lock and dump it in the hold. She gunned the ship as far from the burning cruiser as it could go. Another concussion wave rocked the Fury as Mac’s burning Flit slammed into the cruiser and exploded.

Vas thumbed the storage compartment. “I hope to hell you’re back there, Mac.”

“Just what would you do if I wasn’t? Glue me back together?” Mac’s voice echoed oddly in the Fury’s storage area. “Damn it, that was close!”

“Hey, you’re still here to bitch, ain’t ya?” Vas made sure the storage area was secure and hadn’t taken any hits. “Stay put. There’s not enough room in the cabin for both of us. I have one more ship to check on, then let’s see if we can make it back before this Fury decides it’s had enough of us.”