No Time For Caution
#7 of Shorties
A short story that I wrote some time ago, detailing my vixen character Alcyone's time during an interstellar war as captain of a ship. I've spent a lot of time tinkering with the flow, and I'm proud to say that I'm finally happy enough with it to actually let a larger audience than my 'beta testers' read it. I decided to try my hand at a space-combat scene with ship-to-ship combat to see how well I could manage it. I think I did well, but if you have any pointers please by all means let me know.
For inspiration, I took from the song No Time For Caution by Hanz Zimmer from the Interstellar film score.
The shimmer of leaving the distortion bubble rippled in front of the ship like water, dazzling their eyes with the lens of spacetime returning to its normal state. Coffee mugs jiggled in their holders as gravity caught up with them, a few uttered curses as they spilled some of the caffeinated liquid on their uniforms, but other than that it was simply the mark of another successful jump. More routine tasks to complete. It's all it had been in the most recent weeks. Jump after jump, vanishing from one location, only to reappear in point in space hundreds, or thousands, of light-years away a mere few moments later. It was all the same: the shudder, followed by the chirp-chirp! of the klaxon signaling that they had left the Troughspace, the confirmation from the navigation officer that the Progeny was in the clear. This time, though, everything was going to be different. It had been from the start. That was the plan. Rather than being met with clear space ahead of them, what they had exited into was alight with glitters and shimmers of starlight being reflected, and within seconds of renormalizing to tactical space the computer's alerts sounded alongside the relay from the Sensors Officer.
"Captain, contact! Multiple to the Fore, three degrees down and ten to port."
"Contacts confirmed, Captain! Detecting signatures now... Imperial vessels numbering five and twenty. Current composition analysis shows an armed flotilla guarded by heavy armor; Five battleships, and two Capital destroyers in textbook formation... right where you said they would be." As the Operations officer spoke, screens were deployed that showed an enhanced sensor feed of the void in front of the Progeny of Atlas. Ships that were barely able to be seen by the unaided eye became highlighted in vivid, pulsing red and orange, a stark contrast to the normal green and blue of the holoscreen.
"Scopes, have we been detected?"
"Negative, Captain. Flotilla chatter is minimal. They don't even know we're here." She thought for a moment, calculating everything while she watched the screen. A press of a button brought up projected trajectories for the flotilla, and in particular the battleships.
"Orders, Captain?" This was the moment she was waiting for.
"Lower all external observational blast shields and raise deflector plates around the core unit. Redirect the reserve reactor power and deploy Positron barriers on starboard side. Double ion barrier strength on the port engines and layer them five thick--"
"Captain."
"Comms, raise the 1MC. Declare General Quarters. Weapons, all charge status on Portside ion cannons. Targeting, I want all port-side torpedo tubes peered and ready to fire. Begin calculating shooting solutions on my mark--"
"Aye Ma'am. Barriers are reconfiguring and cannons are currently charging, charge at twenty percent and climbing at five percent a second--"
"Attention Crew! General Quarters, General Quarters, General Quarters! This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill. All hands to stations--"
"Increase Reactors Two and Five to power eight-zero percent and begin cycling up. Switch to dark running."
"Aye captain!"
"All movements aboard the ship Fore and Up along the Starboard side, Down and Aft along Port. Secure all vehicles and close all hangar doors, set materiel status to Lockdown. Prepare for combat. General Quarters, General Quarters, General Quarters, this is not a drill."
"Weapons report showing all Port torpedoes ready to fire, shooting solutions ready to calculate on your order."
She looked at the comms officer, and nodded, giving her an order to repeat the announcement as she turned to her monitors and the bridge went dark, the white halogen lights being replaced quickly by red and blue strip lighting. As the intercom finished its blare, a klaxon bleated twice, and a low, wailing siren began emanating from deep within the bowels of the dreadnought. She watched the displays, the readouts from the enemy comm activity while her officers communicated frantically with every station on her planet-sized ship. Nothing. Like a game of chess, and she was the queen... only this time, the Red queen was the White; she had first move.
"Sensors, any chatter? I want to know when, and if, they spot us, the moment they do."
"Negative, Captain. Nothing... nothing at all. We're invisible to them, they aren't even reacting to our presence. What should we do?" She drummed her fingers on her console for a moment, considering the display's information, before she leaned forward. "Captain?" Someone coughed in the bridge. A pen tapped against a screen, and somebody took a sip of their coffee.
" Mark! All hands to battlestations! Targeting, run shooting solutions for both Port torpedoes and ion cannons. Direct power to MAC arrays two, three, and five, begin charging capacitor banks on all three. Helm, all ahead full, twenty to Starboard and set us on a Starboard spin one revolution every ninety seconds. Peer all Starboard torpedo tubes and begin charging ion cannons. Prepare to fire on my mark. Lockdown all bulkheads and seal the galley. Isolate the enemy network and listen carefully!
A chorus of "Aye, Captain!" rang out across the bridge, before a louder than normal blare from the 1MC sounded to signal the call to arms, the timer on the softscreens leaping to life to begin counting. Within a few seconds of issuing the order she felt the ship lurch to Starboard and jump forward as the engines did as instructed. Another second later she could feel the Progeny begin to perform her roll, and she issued another command.
"Life-support, prepare to invert Positron and ion barrier charges on my order, set them to gyro and await my orders!"
"Aye, aye!"
"Captain, shooting solutions are primed, beginning solutions for Starboard weapon systems now."
"Give me an estimation."
"Looking about one minute."
"Unacceptable! Increase memory access, hand over Starboard systems to Bianca and begin priming Port tubes! I want those solutions ready in thirty seconds, and be ready to fire all Starboard torpedoes as we present ourselves."
"Aye, Captain. Handing over targeting to onboard AI now." Seconds counted by as the simulations ran, yellow lines becoming superimposed over the holoscreen showing the Starboard torpedo paths. Thirty seconds, and one-third of the tubes were targeting. Twenty, and calculations were nearly complete. Suddenly, there was only ten seconds left until the ship would issue its silent roar into the vacuum of space, the yellow grid of solutions suddenly locking into vivid red.
Nine...
The star field directly in front of the ship spun dizzyingly as the ship continued to roll, presenting the keel to the enemy in a calculated, but for the time being, safe, maneuver.
Eight...
Shouts erupted between officers as information was relayed back and forth, screens began displaying targeting markers on each of the ships.
Seven...
"Captain! Starboard shooting solutions are prepared, we are ready to fire--"
Six...
"Life support, activate gyroscopic shielding and invert charges! Rotate Positron barrier to place it between us and the enemy."
Five...
"Still no chatter--"
Four...
"Shielding ready--"
Three...
"Weapons hot--"
Two...
"Targets acquired--"
One...
"On my mark..."
Zero... an instant drawn into eternity by adrenaline, and anticipation, before the command burst from her lips.
"Fire all Starboard torpedoes! Target all available options! MAC array five, prepare to fire on marker two-zero, priority to engine coupling!"
"MAC-Five cycling up! Torpedoes peered and away!"
The entire ship shuddered as the very first volley of combat leapt forth, the Progeny issuing her condemnation upon the Empire vessels in a torrent of glinting missiles that tore through the vacuum of space like ion-propelled hornets. Two seconds later, a second volley sounded out through the bones of the ship as the Aft tubes deployed their payloads. She watched the display that showed the torpedoes screaming toward the enemy ships, starkly contrasted by the bright blue trails of the actual view through the diamond viewplates. An idea formed in her mind, as she watched the missiles make their approach, and as the sensor officer spoke out for a relay, the plan hatched and a smile crept across the vixen's muzzle.
"Captain, chatter detected, it looks like they saw the torpedo launch! The Capital destroyer is tuning to frequency... scans incoming!"
"Redirect MAC array five's shooting solution to target the Destroyer. Recalculate to bearing on marker one-niner and fire when ready. Send one right down her middle."
"But Captain, that's against protocol!"
"Show no quarters, Sergeant! Fire when ready and destroy that Capital ship! This is no time for caution."
"Aye-aye, Captain... solutions recon--axion bolt away!" The shot rang out loud through the vessel; a deafening explosion of metal and electric current that surged through the capacitor banks before roaring out silently in a brilliant streak of sunfire that lanced through the Aether toward the largest vessel. The shot overtook the missiles even despite their head start, hurtling onward until it impacted its target with perfect accuracy, a stunning visual only corroborated by the targeting officer.
"Direct impact! Accuracy was plus-or-minus five meters down bubble... all parameters within nominal tolerances. Target destroyed, flare remaining. Torpedo impact in ten seconds." The countdown began again as the deck of the ship began to rotate itself into recession from the enemy. Now, would come the second wave. Thirty seconds left...
"Captain, Capital destroyer, Marker one-eight, has us pinned! I have weapon signatures from Markers one-seven, zero-niner, and one-four, they're cycling up for a counter-attack."
"Torpedo impact in five seconds--"
"Chatter is insane! It's complete chaos over there, they don't even know what hit them--"
"Four!"
"Targeting, direct shooting solution for MAC array three to Marker one-eight! Same as above, I want you to disembowel that cruiser!"
"Aye Captain! Recalculating--"
"Three!"
"All stations, weapons free! Acquire shooting solutions and fire at will--"
"Two!"
"Decouple Ion Limiters and cycle energy beams! Charge syperconducting lines!"
The ship rumbled as the next volley of torpedoes sprung forth, and another splitting clang issued before the next bolt of charged axion sunfire was sent screaming to its target.
"One!"
"We're being targeted--"
"Chatter increasing, enemy vessels taking evasive action--"
"Torpedo impact! Brace for flash!" They looked away. All of them but her. She narrowed her eyes, blue defying the pulses of white before they flashed into a rippling tsunami of destruction across the flotilla, broken only by the second Capital destroyer exploding in a micronova as the antimatter round penetrated straight through its primary reactor, setting off a brilliant azure corona signaling the catastrophic annihilation brought on by a fusion reaction cascading helplessly out of control. The afterimage burned in her retinas when she looked away, closing her eyes for a moment to shut out the blinding pain from the radiation before looking back.
"Sensors, report!"
"Coming back online now... all torpedoes positive impact. Fifteen vessels confirmed destroyed, still flare. Detecting flightcraft; second wave of torpedoes have adjusted trajectory to target remaining targets."
"Ion cannons free! Firing now!" The space was lit by lance after lance of violet energy as it streaked across No-Man's-Sky, each beam finding a target and either vaporizing it with extreme prejudice, or penetrating hull and shield alike as if it never existed. In mere seconds, there were no ships left, only lumbering, faintly glowing and flickering husks of detritus. One scan... two... then three confirmed no viable weapon signatures, and the Comms officer downgraded the report back to General Quarters. The entire firefight lasted less than two-hundred seconds. Incredible by the Navy's standards, but she wasn't in the Navy anymore. Progeny of Atlas was her ship, not the Navy's. The fight was sloppy. They had been targeted, and that put them as a vulnerable mark. The combat timer mocked the vixen as she struggled to formulate a way to ensure the next battle went perfectly, even while the bridge began to look at her expectantly, waiting for further orders. She smiled to them all, her eyes gleaming in the reflection of the diamond plates, but as her chest swelled with pride and puffed itself out with dignity and authority to issue commands on the outside, inside she felt it: Something was different now. Something didn't feel right, and even though she could hide it from her crew, she could not hide it from herself...
Imperceptibly--quietly--something deep inside of her, had changed...