Chronicles of a Space Mercenary

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Tanya

The burst from her left hand blaster flashed just above the floor and barely caught the edge of the front entrance, the explosion terrific but the two humans were already out of the explosion’s main concussive force. Not pausing as they entered to fire, but rushing forward instead, saved their lives. The blast still sent both flying to the floor. Tanya didn’t have any more time to think about them for the moment. Even as her left hand blaster fired, Tanya was trying to bring the right hand blaster to align on the lizard. It’d been buffeted only a little and it was swinging its weapon around even as Tanya was raising hers.

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Chronicles of a Space Mercenary - excerpt

CHRONICLES OF A SPACE MERCENARY - by - Ronald Wintrick

The thing I hated most about working for the government, any government, they all seemed to think alike, was that then they invariably thought that they owned you. Patriotism, duty and all those other words that meant they thought they were entitled to what was yours. All meaningless trite to a world-less vagabond like myself. My ship was my home and I needed no other.

“They’re waiting for a response, Captain!” Tanya Serensen said, my strong First and the meanest bitch I have ever met.

The war was over. We were, had been, part of the Federation forces which had unsuccessfully attempted to unify the four hundred and seventy-two known human worlds. We had been smashed ruthlessly, to put mildly what had been a lost cause from the beginning. I had been paid handsomely with trade goods and supplies; semi-precious metals and fuel rods, to be exact, plus I’d brought my ship, Last Chance, and my crew through without a scratch. So I had not complained when everyone started signing peace treaties.

The problem began when I informed my erstwhile employers that with hostilities ended, so too were my obligations. I had fulfilled to the letter our contract. I owed them nothing more. They had not agreed.

There were now three of my former allies, positioned in attack formation outside Last Chance’s hull. Not only did they not feel as if I had not completely fulfilled my end of the bargain, but I was getting the distinct impression they would not be satisfied until they had added Last Chance herself to their now depleted arsenal. I guess they felt, that with all the losses they had suffered, that Last Chance would be a welcome addition to their much depleted Navy. I guess they hadn’t quite learned their lesson about attempting to force their wills on unwilling subjects. Some people are simply incapable of understanding. Especially people in positions of power, like governments, for example.

“You bastards!” I snarled. I should have known these ungrateful hypocrites would try to back stab me, especially now that every planet was a law unto itself, only answerable to itself, and they angry at the defeat they had suffered. They were quick at jumping on the bandwagon of self governance, now that no unifying government held sway. That was for sure.

“Is that your response?” Tanya asked, no inflection in her voice.

“No!” I snapped. The crazy bitch would repeat it too, if I didn’t specifically say no! A first impression of Tanya Serensen would never give you the insightful depth that existed behind her innocent appearing, stunningly beautiful face. Blond hair, blue eyes, body and face of a love goddess, barely fifty kilos soaking wet, but as vicious as a Tarnian Bola Raptor when angered, and if you’ve ever been to Tarnia you know there is no living creature meaner nor better able to defend itself. That’s my Tanya, in a nutshell. A very tough, unbreakable nutcase.

“What are we going to do?” Demanded David Bren, my Science Engineer, when I didn’t immediately make a decision. Bren is a mathematical genius and quite able to compute our odds, no matter which decision I ultimately made; whether we fought or fled, against the three Class Four Katon Destroyers which were arrayed around us now in a roughly triangular formation. Not that it took a mathematical genius to figure these odds. We were fucked, and that was the long and the short of it! To fight would be bad. To flee, worse. To surrender, the worst! They weren’t going to let us survive to go running around telling anyone who would listen how we had been robbed by the honest, law abiding Katons. They had their tourism and immigration to think about, but they also needed ships to patrol their borders. Hell, I was seriously worried, and I, Marc Deveroux, am usually quite unflappable. There was really only one answer.

I keyed ship’s intercom; “Battle Stations. Delegate targets. Fire on orders only!” I looked into Tanya’s cool blue orbs and winked my left eye. A left wink meant to be prepared to fight. The wink was redundant, of course. There was no other option but to fight. She smiled at me serenely, the calm before the storm.

“Tell them,” I said, “that we surrender.” I smiled my own smile back at Tanya, my goodbye, if that was what it would come to, but we had been through so many such tough scrapes, that it seemed impossible that this one could really be the end.

“You damned maniac!” Bren yelled, jumping up from his seat at his computer console, glaring at me furiously, but he shut his mouth on whatever he had been about to say when Coto, my pet Xiong, chittered insect-like at him from the ceiling above me where it was resting. Impossibly, and as comfortably as I was myself sitting in my own seat, it clung effortlessly to the seamless, smooth ceiling panels like a fly, or spider, and this under full gravity. I was not one of those Captains who preferred his ship’s gravity at near zero for the comfort it provided. I liked my full gravity, and even more, upon occasion, to keep my body fit. Coto clung to the ceiling now under that full gravity, as if on some invisible perch.

Coto appeared to be some kind of sick hybrid of ant and spider, except on a mammalian scale. Six legs, segmented brown body with bristly short black hairs, lusterless matte black eyes (it was impossible to tell where Coto was looking) and razor sharp pincer mandibles. Though only the size of a small dog, it could be a vicious killer if antagonized, and it didn’t like anyone yelling at me!

Xiongs were considered partially sentient, able to use simple tools when it was necessary, but having been adapted to survival so well from the beginning (they had been at the top of the food chain on their own world until humans arrived) that they hadn’t needed to evolve further. I had saved Coto from a gang of boys with shock-sticks and the aggressive little creature had been my loyal friend and protector since.

Not that I needed a protector.

Tanya ignored the little drama and passed along my message.

“Prepare for boarding!” The Bridge speakers relayed immediately, aggressively.

My answer was to buckle the acceleration harness of my Captain’s chair. David sat back down, looking as petrified as he always did before a confrontation, but he buckled himself in as well. Tanya was already secured.

“Melanie, Janice, Manuel?” I asked over ship’s intercom.

“What’s happening?” Manuel Terrarium asked. “Why am I looking down the barrel of a photon cannon? What the hell did you do now?”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” I said sarcastically. “The Katons want to confiscate Last Chance. I think you can guess what will happen to us if we let that happen.”

“It looks like they’re succeeding.” Melanie Vang said.

“Do you have a plan?” Janice Ortiz asked. “One that doesn’t involve breathing vacuum or copious bleeding!”

“No.” I said. “Be ready to fight. There are no odds in surrender. They’ll kill us sure as I’m Marc Deveroux. Anyway, there are only three of them, so the odds are in our favor.” I thought I sounded convincing, and no one contradicted me, though Bren was staring daggers at me from his station. If looks could kill . . . !

Maybe I am a maniac and maybe I sometimes enjoyed risking the lives of everyone around me (as well as my own), but there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that we didn’t stand a snowballs chance in hell once we’d surrendered Last Chance, and ourselves, to the merciless Katons. Our time remaining in this life could at that point be measured in the number of steps it would take to march us to the nearest airlock. No. Surrender was not an option.

“Forward Destroyer moving in to dock.” Tanya said. “Ten seconds. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.” The hull rang as the pilot of the Katon Destroyer brought his vessel up against Last Chance’s docking locks.

“Engage locks. Seal all airtight hatches.” I told them. Bren’s fingers moved over his keyboard and we heard the locks engage gratingly and seal with a clang. Our two ships were now one. Locked together. Our Fates inseparably intertwined. That left only the two unengaged ships able to fire on us from their attack formation, and even they would have to worry about damaging their own comrade if and when they did, or the secondary fusion reaction if we were destroyed while the two of us were still mated. The Katon ship now locked to our side was as fucked as we were, because I did not feel for one moment, not one second, that the two remaining Katon ships would refrain from firing just out of consideration for their comrade. When we opened fire, they’d return it, in spades.

We had no time to dally. The engaged ship could blast or cut through the lock in only moments. If I gave them those moments.

“Fire on free targets!” I yelled into the com, at the same time engaging Last Chance’s main fusion engine, throwing the controller over hard to thrust away from the Katon locked onto our side, hoping literally to rip it loose and fill it with nothing. Fill it with the vacuum of space and the joys of explosive decompression. If they had not thought to seal their interior airtight hatches, it would be all over for Destroyer number one. A rather gruesome way to go!

The thrust threw me back in my seat despite Internal Gravity. It could only compensate for just so much. Last Chance groaned desperately under the dangerous stress as she tried to pull away from the ship attached to her side, and failed, the metal straining but somehow holding, the Destroyer coming along for the ride with us.

The two loose Destroyers, shown on separate view screens, were glowing with stripes of luminescent green death as Last Chance’s plasma cannons poured the green fire into them at such close range, the gelatinous plasma smeared across the hulls of the ships sticking where it struck and eating into the thick armor like napalm on flesh. Nothing but nothing could scrape it off once it adhered. The thick armor of the Katon ships boiled away into space in billowing clouds as the plasma tried to eat its way down into those ships.

The image on my right hand main screen (Last Chance sported two main view screens plus twelve smaller, secondary screens) showed the Destroyer to our stern taking fire from both Janice and Melanie’s rear guns, though the way we were beginning to rotate, those targets would soon swap positions, and the Destroyer on the left screen would be under those twin guns, Janice and Melanie’s, which were mounted above and below the main rear fusion engine. The Destroyer now under those guns was losing armor quickly. It was taking a hell of a beating.

Melanie and Janice were pouring their fire into the same area amidships on their joint target, hammering the same spot over and over again until the whole section was glowing green fire and which was rapidly creating a huge sink hole in the side of the ship. Atmosphere exploded outwards from the red-hot and green glowing area as the Destroyer lost hull integrity, blowing a green and yellow flame many meters out into space as the red hot plasma ignited the escaping oxygen into open flame.

I shoved my controller back over to avoid throwing us into a complete spin and to maintain those two stern guns on the damaged ship as long as I could, and in the hope that I could get the bow Destroyer under Last Chance’s photon cannon, at whose controls Tanya was eagerly awaiting the opportunity to fire the powerful weapon.

As powerful as the plasma cannon were, they were but a minor nuisance compared to the energies of the photon cannon. The photon cannon was too large to track independently, however, its mounting fixed and immovable, so if I wanted Tanya to get off a shot I had to bring the enemy under our nose, even if only momentarily, for the opportunity to become reality.

The bow Destroyer realized my aim and lit her own engine, shooting past us before I could give Tanya her chance, but we striped her with green fire as she flashed past, but doing insignificant damage.

“Destroyers falling behind!” Bren yelled.

“We can see that.” Tanya said, glaring at him for a moment while she had nothing else to do, angry that she had not been given her chance.

The Destroyer we had hulled was floundering behind us, but the second Destroyer, having spun out to our side and having missed its first opportunity to fire its photon cannon at us, either out of surprise or the fear they would hit their own companion locked to our hull (a plan that paid off for once) were thrusting side-wise to get around behind us and realign their main gun again, evidently willing to risk their companion now in their own fear and anger.

I couldn’t allow them a shot down our fusion engine. One such direct hit would mean the end for a certainty. Maybe for them as well, as they looked to be well within the blast radius, if I were any sure judge. Space battles were seldom fought at such close ranges. They were usually long over before two such vessels could get to such intimate proximity. It was much easier to target the photon cannon on a long distance target than it was to try and twist around to get it within your own moving targeting brackets. Such contests were normally determined by which ship possessed the largest capacity to generate fusion electricity, because that ship would have the longest striking ability. I on the other hand, am quite familiar with this close in infighting. It was my style. Last Chance was far too small to engage the larger vessels she most frequently found herself contesting. And anyway, I wasn’t interested in a victory that included my own destruction.

Last Chance’s plasma guns were firing wildly, their green streaks of fire fanning off into space around the second Destroyer as I pushed Last Chance hard into her spin, the Destroyer riding our side helping our spin as I fought to get our gun on our enemies before they finished their turn and got their big gun on us. A battle of orientation, of maneuverability.

“Be ready.” I told Tanya calmly, but it was hardly necessary and I doubt she even heard me. Her entire concentration was centered on her fire control screen and the ship I was slowly putting in the cross-hairs of her photon targeting brackets. She was smiling suddenly.

Last Chance was swinging around rapidly now, her exterior cameras, under Bren's sure control, tracking the second Destroyer, keeping us on target.

Suddenly the Destroyer whipped across the screen. Whipped across the red targeting cross-hairs. Tanya stabbed at the fire control on her console. The pencil-thin red beam of the condensed particle stream flowed out along the the cross-hair targeting bracket, following it even as Last Chance continued to turn, the beam curving away into space, and then it cut across the nose of the Destroyer, separating it cleanly from the rest of the ship.

There was time only to begin seeing the sections separate before the Destroyer exploded in painful brilliance and the video dampeners blocked the screens to save us retinal burns.

“Hit their photon cannon!” Tanya said cheerfully as the screens slowly brightened and we could see where we were going again.

Antz 4 Sample

Ronald Wintrick

Antz – The Final Epic

Copyright 2012 by Ronald Edwin Wintrick

Amazon Edition

111^th – Sandgarth - Bellefontaine

"He traveled twenty-seven days Jump in that?" Marcus Welby asked as Bellefontaine put the magnified image of the very small inbound ship tagged Transient on the main screen.

"And twenty-seven days out right before that." Sandgarth agreed. It was his request which brought Gregory Matlin and his AI equipped Transient here now. Jeeda lost interest in Gregory Matlin immediately after hearing of his accomplishment. Praise for individual heroes would have to come after. If the war with the Antz ever came to a conclusion, and most thought it never would.

Sandgarth knew it would. He knew the tenacity of the human race. They would never stop hunting the Antz. Not until every last one had been exterminated, or until every last human had been hunted to extinction.

Sandgarth knew absolutely nothing about the entity known as It. Not in any real sense. Sandgarth could only judge the invisible, unknowable Leader of the Antz by the actions of the Antz themselves. The Antz were just mindless hosts- there was no debate over that further- but the thoughts of the Leader could be deduced by the actions of the host.

The only verdict Sandgarth could render was that the Antz would never stop. New Armadas were still arriving to carry forth the invasion, the only difference now the Antz Armadas immediately departed after deployment and the new hosts spawned on the afflicted worlds no longer building ships. The Antz no longer attempting to build ships on any human worlds; the sole purpose of the continuing campaign clearly that of fully eradicating the entire human race down to the last individual.

As Sandgarth rode a lift to meet Gregory Matlin personally he wondered if it wasn’t humanities’ fault in the first place- in a twisted kind of way- that this war would never end without the complete destruction of one or the other? The entity known as It was psychic. It could look into the mind of almost any human it desired, and looking there It sees the resolve of the human animal. Knowing humans will never stop, seeing it in our minds, the Antz have no choice but to press the engagement to its conclusion.

“Our own fault.” Sandgarth said with a chuckle as the lift-tube ejected him into the dock.

Then the emergency klaxons were ringing and the ship beneath him accelerating, a very noticeable feeling when the acceleration was extreme.

“What the hell’s going on?” Gregory Matlin asked as he stepped down from Transient.

“Not good news.” Sandgarth replied, having just received the briefing by link. “I’ll tell you on the way.”

It

It halted It's Armada beyond the range of the Station’s puny weapons while It contemplated this new data. It could detect nothing out of the ordinary with the humans- at the moment. It knew these human individuals. It knew of their unique abilities. It fought these individuals on the planet humans called Alackner. These humans and their abilities were recognized. The process by which they could accelerate their bodies beyond the physical normal boundaries was not understood but recognized and under analysis.

It now weighed the strategic advantages/disadvantages of digesting the Station the humans called Fexley and the unique human individuals within. The Station once possessed by Brian McAndrews, another individual with unique abilities but now relegated to oblivion. It understood what the humans wanted. They wanted to bring the fight aboard It’s ships. It desired to bring them aboard. To subdue them and then- after breaking their bodies- digest their weakened minds.

The allure of possessing the secret of this new human ability, and the potential of adapting its use to It’s host individuals almost overwhelmed It's powers of deductive reasoning. It recognized the emotion swaying It’s decision making process and minimized that function to an obscure section of It’s consciousness. It then allocated every available byte of It's consciousness to weigh the problem- minus the emotional input- but there wasn't enough empiric data to calculate such a many-faceted equation.

The risk and computational loop It could not fully delineate was the threat of allowing the humans to gain control of one of It's ships versus the possibility of acquiring new data. Valuable data. Yet in the end, despite It's massive processing power, It was unable to devise a strategy by which It could be guaranteed to harvest the humans without subjecting Itself to extreme risk. The threat too great, unable to make the calculation, It chose to relegate to oblivion.

A thousand photon beams ripped Fexley Station apart.

Next It: It knew they approached. The 111^th and its psychics had been doing It extreme damage. The Flagship which carried the psychics never exited with the rest, however. It was never given the opportunity to eliminate. The Armada had inserted its host and fully armed would have a high probability of eliminating the Flagship if it exited with the rest.

The humans thought they were cloaking themselves but the war had now become one of attrition. They could cloak nothing when It wished to find them, and they were now never out of It’s sight. After inserting It’s host the colony ships were now expendable. Colony ships had already been dispatched to every habitable-acceptable world within reach- reach the lifespan of It’s hosts to make the journeys- so It pretended and waited for the one time the Flagship would exit with the rest. It was a patient waiter.

It also still wondered. One of the humans with the strange ability- there were thousands of such throughout the human race- was making the crossing from the destroyed Station.

Fexley Station

The Antz Armada sat quiescently just out of reach of Fexley’s weapons- not that they would have attempted to use them- for seventeen anxious days and nights. As if the Antz were inviting attack from without, but no attack from without came and the wait continued.

The entire human race sat breathlessly awaiting news of the daring assault- those who were able to receive updates. No Fleet attacks came despite the vulnerability of the stationary, quiet Antz Armada. Then abruptly the Antz opened fire. Those aboard Fexley had two seconds warning as alarms shrieked of photon locks.

The Station came apart in one massive spasm, cut into thousands of pieces simultaneously. The atmosphere exploded outward taking everything with it. Jeanette had just enough time to slap her face-shield in place and grab a solid support before a photon beam cut across the corridor through which she had just passed, not ten meters distant.

The shock of the closeness of the raw energy electrified Jeanette’s body, nearly numbing her, nearly losing her grasp on the support as the atmosphere tried to escape all at once. She was slammed against her hold on the support, snapped straight-out like a flag in a hurricane. The rush came and went and was instantly gone.

The piece of Station, now in zero gravity, was tumbling in an odd spin. There was no feeling of motion in zero gravity but she was pushed to one side of the corridor. Enough spin to create artificial gravity. She found a stable position at the juncture of wall and ceiling and took a moment to look down the corridor and out into open space.

‘Anyone else out there alive?’ Jeanette asked by link as she watched the debris of what had once been Fexley Station beginning to separate out as it expanded, each piece on its individual journey.

‘Alive.’ Master Sunatta replied.

‘Same here.’ Vina said to an abrupt silence. An abrupt silence that stretched until Master Sunatta broke it;

‘Den is gone. We will move forward.’

‘Den isn’t gone.’ Jeanette replied. She could feel him even though she wasn’t in her heightened awareness and he was alive. To remain in her heightened state both aged her, not a real problem with rejuv, but she also used tremendous amounts of energy and had to eat to compensate. She would reserve the use of her ability until she needed it or it would eat her alive.

‘I will go on ahead while you recover him.’ Master Sunatta informed.

‘Go on ahead where?’ Vina demanded.

‘My appointment with the Antz. It was rude of them to cancel at such late notice.’ Master Sunatta thought/said.

‘Wait for me!’ Jeanette ordered but there was no response and Jeanette didn’t bother repeating herself. She could feel Den and he was alive. The Fleet supplied grav-harness- designed primarily to keep you attached to non-massive objects, like the floor (or ceiling) of the interior of an Antz’ ship for instance and brought along just in case, now proving a very worthwhile preparation- wasn’t very maneuverable through open space but by trial and error Jeanette soon had control of her locomotion.

Space loomed ahead as she maneuvered down the corridor and then right out into open space. The pieces of the Station had already spread out over a great distance and Den’s signature or aura, she really had no name to describe what she could feel, was coming from one of the farthest pieces and she began towards it immediately.

Vina came out of nowhere but Jeanette felt her coming. Together they flew towards Den’s signature. Jeanette looked towards where she could feel Master Sunatta’s signature. He was already on his way, somewhere between the debris of the Station and the Antz Armada still sitting there admiring their work; or waiting.

Jeanette didn’t know which.

Alaris Burkett – Zenith – In transit

The medical ward made available to them was crowded with ‘Docs, though none were presently treating patients. The potential patients were all sitting on the extended-out bed-platforms and in readiness to become patients. All were sure they would be, including Alaris.

‘You know the risks.’ Alaris spoke into their minds, vocalizing unnecessary in this group. They were a hundred and seventy-nine, but none besides himself even half as strong as the conspicuously missing Madame Beauchart. Jeeda had negated the idea of including Madame Beauchart in this attack with a simple statement;

“Too many eggs in one basket.” She said. Alaris had not agreed but the decision was made and Jeeda not the type to have her judgments questioned. Alaris had served the Fleet for seven hundred years but this was the first time he’d met Jeeda. MID had been the highest echelon of Fleet- until Jeeda Collins of course, Alaris thought with wry humor- but there had been little interaction between the two Sections. There had been no reason or need to meet her. The MID’s activities clandestine. Jeeda was as hard as he had heard however- even harder- and Alaris didn’t say another word. It would have been a pointless waste of time.

Alaris turned to his mental preparedness and blanked out the too numerous thought responses- too numerous to comprehend all at once- as he lied back on the ‘Doc’s table. The ‘Docs were in response-readiness. Should any present- or all present, Alaris thought with more wry humor- need medical assistance they would receive it instantly.

They weren’t ready for It and all present were aware. Alaris could no longer hide what was in his mind from the rest. The hours and days the group had spent in mind-meld now making them essentially permanently linked. If humanity survived, if they survived, the members of this group would forever be linked, no matter what spans separated them.

The training techniques he learned in the care of MID Doctors now served this group well. All were progressing and getting stronger. They spent every waking moment in mind-meld. Most hadn’t been aware of their abilities. None had received the training Alaris had. Every waking moment had been only a few hours a day for some- the effort exhausting beyond belief and those weakest members sleeping twenty or more hours a day. When those sleepers woke they were immediately melded back into the group and the training continued. They had all made excellent progress.

Yet the simple unavoidable fact was they weren’t ready. They weren’t ready for It and they knew it. Alaris opened his mind to the meld and began to gather the power of the group. Soon he would attack.

111^th Battle Group - Zenith

‘It is as I feared,’ Madame Beauchart’s thought entered her mind, ‘yet all is not lost.’

‘You can see that while in transit?’ Jeeda thought, the message clearly delivered. Madame Beauchart was aboard Zenith, was with her at all times, but at even greater distances the link created between them remained unbreakable. Madame Beauchart was never more than a thought away.

‘The group can. All four survive. One is approaching the Antz Armada as I deliver this message.’

One alone assaulting the Antz Armada, Jeeda thought. That would be Sunatta; the secretive, mysterious and terminally insane- if half of what she had heard was true- leader of the Eldritch. Or second in command, if that could be believed. She wasn’t sure she did.

“Approaching exit.” Marcus Welby announced. “Orders?”

“Bypass exit.” Jeeda ordered to surprised looks. The 111^th would crush the one Antz Armada if it yet remained. The expanding fleets of new mobile shipyards were constructing new mobile yards and thousands of new Super Dreadnaught ships per week. Those very same mobile shipyards were expanding into Interstellar space in every direction as the only hope for saving mankind- to spread itself across the Universe unchecked and without restraint- just like the Antz.

Every new ship constructed was added to the 111^th. A constant stream of new ships joined the 111^th on a daily basis, the number increasing on a daily basis despite the fact that they were coming from farther away every day. There were no longer individual Detachments. There was just the 111^th and it had been wreaking havoc. Jeeda was spending those ships and crews mercilessly, but there was no other alternative. Despite the 111^th’s losses it continued to grow at a massive rate.       

Yet Madame Beauchart believed the Antz Armada still remained, so it still remained, making this an excellent opportunity. An opportunity Jeeda was almost Duty-bound to accept. A duty she had been bound to accept for the past seventeen days- yet had not. Now with Fexley destroyed and the very important Eldritch in need of rescue, she felt more Duty-bound to act than she had. But she did not.

The 111^th had seen recent success. Annihilating every Antz Armada it found. The psychics were delivering the 111^th to resounding victories every single time. Now the 111^th always outnumbered the enemy. The Antz never knew when or where they would strike. The Armada at Fexley numbered four thousand while the 111^th was now forty-seven thousand plus Capital Class ships and hundreds of thousands of miscellaneous ships of war.

Yet what if that crazy Sunatta is actually able to get aboard and even crazier than that, subdue an entire Antz’ ship? If there was a chance- even the remotest- he could be successful then it was worth the risk of not attacking- at least a little longer. Just to see what would happen.

Newston

“The food aboard Falcon isn’t the greatest but if any of you are hungry the galley in this Section is just down that corridor there.” The Colonel who greeted them at the hatch of Kent’s ship informed, pointing the way toward one of the numerous exit hatches in the massive dock and to the corridor visible beyond. “I’m Colonel Edwards, at your disposal.”

Colonel Edwards heard, everyone heard, about how this group had been one of the first- maybe the first, the facts were fuzzy- to begin eating the Antz and that it was now standard practice everywhere. In most places the Antz were the only food left available. With the Antz’ full-complement of left-hand amino acids the Antz as a food supply was proving both abundant and nutritious. The cycle was coming full circle on the Antz.

“Which direction?” Carla asked as she pulled her children along behind her past Kent. Neither she nor the children had eaten Antz but it became a close call when the supplies ran low. That with Kent wanting to feed it to them and the children agreeing with everything Uncle Kent ever said. Kurt was eating the Antz as were most. Carla did not begrudge him that she just didn’t want to participate if she didn’t have to.

Edwards pointed again, a small smile on his lips as Carla and the children disappeared in the direction indicated.

“Don’t like Antz huh?” He asked Kent and Kurt and the rest who were now debarking. Not before getting a good look at them. At their old eyes! If he hadn’t known better he would have instantly saluted them.

He knew better though. These people weren’t Fleet. Not only weren’t they Fleet but these people had fought the Antz with swords alone and lived to tell of it. Now planning to storm the actual Antz’ ships! Amazing!

“Only because she never tried it.” Kent said. “It’s actually quite good.”

“We brought some along if you’d like to try it.” Brac said with a big smile.

“I believe I will.” Edwards said, not really wanting to but it a point of honor- if the Eldritch could eat Antz so could Fleet. “This is what you’ll want to look at right away though.” He added, leading them towards the strange ship sitting in a corner of the dock that most among the group had noticed immediately. There was no hesitation. They eagerly followed.

“No obvious signs of propulsion.” Kurt said as they stood next to the ship. It was a miniature APC, all present recognized, though entirely different. Designed to carry a dozen troopers at most while full APC’s would carry dozens.

Its most noticeable attribute was its lack of weapons, however. It would have been difficult to find an unarmed human ship before the conflict and impossible now. Or up until now. Now humans were producing them again. A few in any case, designed for one specific task. To deliver human fighters to Antz’ ships!

“I like it.” Paul said.

“I like the handrails.” Kent said as he reached out a hand to test the strength of the railing. It was solid. “I guess this is how we’ll be riding in.”

Kurt wasn’t sure he was as enthused as he had been previously as he studied the handrail and the meter wide platform under it- and he was sure he hadn’t been particularly enthused before. Not enthused but along for the ride.

“Let’s take it for a test-flight.” Was what Brent had to offer the conversation. There were laughs around.

But it was nice to be able to laugh again, Kurt thought.

New Hope

"Home sweet home." Moguilo said cheerily as they began climbing out the last bit of tunnel into the light of day. The first real light they had seen in a long time. It was warm. Moguilo had to hold a hand over his eyes to the unaccustomed blinding glare. The others did the same as they came up. It seemed extremely brilliant and it took long minutes to fully adjust.

The city was a devastated wreck. There were few buildings left standing and none untouched by the war. There were people everywhere however. Going through the rubble or just gathered in groups to converse and share the news. Humans were no longer afraid to walk freely on their own planet! Now the human race was welcoming the Antz with open arms.

The difference was noticeable. Everyone had been running then- running in a million different directions all at once. Chaotic and disorganized the way the Antz wanted. Now the people walked brazenly. Out in the open but with swords in ready sheaths. The other major difference which was noticeable was that the Antz weren't attacking. The Antz were on the run! That was the reason they were back on the surface. The Antz would no longer meet them.

"Those are Eldritch." Mavy said waving towards a group of about fifteen people about a block distant.

"They're looking this way." Wayne said.

"They think we had a child down in the tunnels fighting with us." Pitan said with a smirk. In fact Mavy was now dressed in a child's clothing. They'd found a suitcase full of clothing that fit Mavy perfectly- she had not tried to think about why it was there- the only catch was that it had been a little girl's clothing and looked it.

"I'm the only one wearing clean clothing." Mavy said with her own smirk. None had possessed anything clean until they found the suitcase, and there was nothing in the suitcase that fit them. Wayne, Moguilo and Pitan looked the parts they were playing while Mavy looked like she had spent the time in daycare. "And by the way all three of you are disgustingly filthy!"

Their clothes were stained black. No amount of washing would get them clean. They had long since run out of clean clothing. Mavy’s smile spoke volumes!

"They're coming this way." Moguilo said, hiding his smile well. "I think they really want to see if there was a child fighting in the tunnels."

"They're known to us." Mavy said, referring to herself and Pitan.

"Two of them, in any case." Pitan agreed, though hardly able to believe he was seeing them here.

Califta

"Good Lord!" Danny said.

"It's a good thing you came up when you did. It was assumed everyone had come up long ago; that was the official report. It's a good thing you came up where you did as well. This is one of the last staging areas." The stranger said as he himself turned and headed toward the makeshift spaceport they could only see from their vantage because of the monstrous ships docked there towering over the landscape.

"We were having so much fun we lost track of the time." Sally said to his retreating back. He glanced back at Sally just a bit oddly but not really. This war had created all types and the look of insanity in her eyes was clear to see- also clear how she had acquired that insanity. All six erupted out of the tunnel opening as he was passing. They came out with little more than the swords on their backs and their permanently black stained clothing.

"He was probably in a hurry," Sally said humorously, "to get away from me before I began telling him stories of Antz cuisine." Sally was looking forward to telling everyone she could. She’d earned the right and actually the Antz were delicious. They'd gone deep into the bowels of the Antz’ tunnels, completely out of communications range, killing Antz everywhere they went. The only reason they finally came up now was the Antz would no longer engage and they ran out of food.

"I can't believe we're going to destroy our own worlds." Doc said, looking at the bulks of massive ships soaring into the sky less than a quarter kilometer distant. "Evacuating the entire planet! Evacuating every overrun planet!

"What's left of it." Trent said as he surveyed what was left of his world.

"I think it's a good plan." Calla said. "The Antz won't engage us further and we can't leave them behind us."

"I wonder if Jeeda Collins had anything to do with this." Doc said with his usual good humor.

"I'm wondering where the Antz Armadas are?" Valerie asked as she too looked at the bulks of the ships towering into the sky, vulnerable to orbital attack.

"I think we can attribute that to Jeeda Collins as well." Doc added. "I think we should also get moving."

They all agreed.

New Culver

Mac was the only one to flinch as the massive ship dropped towards them like a rock and then stopped little more than a meter above their heads. Rumors of Antz’ ships in the area and the pilot wasn’t fucking around.

A huge boarding ramp dropped and the entire assemblage went aboard. Ships, supplies and personnel all in one rush and then the ramp was sealing and the ship was noticeably accelerating into the sky. It was Mac’s first time in a spaceship and the feeling was odd though he knew from reading that if he felt inertia over internal gravity- and there was quite a bit, at least two gravities over standard- it meant they were accelerating at a great rate.

“They’re pushing it.” Dana said.

“You’ve been aboard a spaceship?” Murrell asked.

“The Junior League tournaments took us to many worlds.” Dana agreed.

“World championships?” Mac asked, Murrell already having caught the gist of it. “What else don’t I know about you?”

“Ask yourself what you do know about me,” Dana said, “would be a better place to start.”

Mac had to admit, though he did so silently, that he was learning a great deal new about Dana. The main thing he had learned was how very little he actually knew about her. The more he was learning the more he was realizing he didn’t know a thing about her, when he got right down and admitted it to himself.

Mac also understood one other thing new; Dana never told him any of these things because that was the sacrifice she made to make their relationship work. Knowing Mac would chafe under that knowledge, such relationships always difficult no matter which side of the gender line you are on.

It wouldn’t have worked then but it was going to work beautifully now, Mac realized; everything was changed. Mac was changed. Dana was… no she isn’t, Mac realized. She isn’t changed at all; she was just finally letting it show.

“It’s time to see what you can do with a pair of swords.” Murrell said to Dana as the inertia visibly lessened. Murrell and Dana, and everyone else present knew what the feeling meant, that they had entered jump, but Mac was just glad the dizzying weight was gone. Then Murrell turned to Mac; “It’s time to begin your training.” Suddenly Mac wished the inertia was back except as to be returning him to New Culver.

“My training?” Mac asked.

“Everyone has to do their part darling.” Dana said sweetly. “Anyway, there’s nowhere else to go. New Culver is being destroyed. Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”

For the first time in his life Mac didn’t have a single thing to say.

The planet Boardwalk – Admiral Haller – Super Dreadnaught Quince

"The last of the survivors have been evacuated." Colonel McCutchen turned from his display to inform Admiral Haller, though he wasn't sure how he was remaining so calm when he was about to watch his own home-world be destroyed. Add the fact that not one of his family or friends were listed among the evacuees and that gave you a pretty fair picture of McCutchen’s feelings.

Haller looked at McCutchen knowing full well what the look on his face meant. He didn’t have to ask. They had all lost friends and family along the way, one of the hardest aspects of doing your duty was the conflict of not knowing if you were doing the right thing, if having been with your family at this time wouldn’t have been the more appropriate action.

Haller had given all those who requested leave to rejoin their families, to fight with their families on the ground. The ranks were swelling with recruits and it was better to have those who wanted to join the ground battles on the ground fighting rather than in the brig or ejected out an airlock. McCutchen had not been one of those who requested leave and Haller could see the burden he was now carrying.

Of course that was all to be changed now. There would be no more leaves. There would be nowhere to go. There would be plenty of new recruits now, Haller thought with some irony. They’d be aboard military ships anyway and better to have some small control than none at all. Haller would not want to be a non-combatant on a ship at war. Never knowing when the end might be coming and unable to do a damn thing about it.

This was the most climactic moment in all of humanities long existence. The moment when the human race went nomadic! With Haller’s actions- Admiral Jeeda Collins’ Orders- would the course be forever set

"Fire!" Haller ordered calmly.

The photon beams speared entirely through Boardwalk. Through the entire planet and far beyond- the power of a Super Dreadnought was almost not to be believed. The photon cannons pivoted as they fired, dissecting the world momentarily into dozens of parts. The planet did not fall apart of course, but the sky below shown on-screen instantly turned murky white. The planet had been returned to its primordial post-coalescent state.

"It's finished." Colonel McCutchen said.

"It's just begun." Admiral Haller told McCutchen softly.

The planet Valor

The planet was named Valoria- but its residents were now calling it Valor. On Valor they were prepared for the Antz. Though over eight billion people had originally called Valor home and millions more had been evacuated to Valor for the coming fight- not one of them remained on the surface. The surface structures, the gleaming magnificent cities, were as empty as if Armageddon had just occurred and the Lord had Called all to His bosom- though even then it wouldn’t be this quiet with those left who hadn’t! The surface was empty of occupants.

The Antz Armada was expected. They hadn’t known when, the Antz were no longer following an understandable battle plan. No one knew when the Antz would show up any more, if they did Jeeda would be there, but there was no confusion as to the fact that they were coming. Now they had arrived.

The Antz exited and moved towards the planet to deploy. Millions were watching from the thousands of kilometers of tunnels below which had been dug, wired and prepared to meet the Antz. When the Antz Armada stopped short of deployment range, there was puzzlement around. The puzzlement didn’t last long though. The Antz Armada opened fire.

When the Antz Armada moved on, it left a lifeless ball of glowing magma behind. Then it jumped for its next target.

Fexley Station debris

Indecision wracked Jeanette as she felt Master Sunatta reach the AGP shield of the ship he had chosen and slip through it effortlessly. The grav-harness employing the same field had nullified it and allowed entrance. Jeanette hadn’t been sure if that would work but she had to put Master Sunatta out of her mind for the moment as they had found Den.

‘I’m alive.’ Den said as he simultaneously roused from his unconsciousness to find Jeanette and Vina descending on him from open space. Where the Station had gone and what had happened to it was clear. Den had barely gotten his helmet in place when the Station came apart, he now remembered, and he had been battered against something with less give than he.

‘Hey you didn’t forget to grab that tachyon beacon, did you?’ Vina said, Den having agreed to be in charge of it. She was joking and she wasn’t- even though it was clear it wasn’t in evidence- because it was just then that she noticed that the Antz Armada had begun to move off.

First very slowly and then with a burst of speed it vanished. The flash when it jumped was barely visible off in the distance it traveled. They were alone.

‘Master Sunatta?’ Jeanette tried to link but too late, her shock having caused her delay. There was no answer, but she hadn’t expected one. Master Sunatta and the Antz Armada was gone.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’ Den said as he turned to follow Jeanette’s gaze, their links synced and he understanding immediately what that foolish old man had done.

‘He’s gone.’ Den linked.

‘He’s not gone.” It was Vina this time using those words, as she looked at Jeanette’s blank gaze towards the Antz’ exit and knowing what the look meant.

‘Not yet.’ Jeanette said, with Master Sunatta at that very moment though they were far out of link range.

The brilliant flash of an exit caught all of their attention; all but Jeanette, she was somewhere else.

111^th – in transit

‘The Antz Armada has departed.’ Madame Beauchart’s thought entered Jeeda’s mind and she acted instantly.

“Exit!” Jeeda ordered the surprised bridge crew but only moments later they were back in normal space.

“Fexley Station?” Marcus asked.

“As quickly as possible.” Jeeda asserted, wondering what it could all mean. As if the Antz had just waited for Sunatta, allowed him aboard and then departed with him the moment he was.

It wasn’t coincidence. Jeeda had a moment of deep foreboding at what the consequences of this day would be but her thoughts were interrupted after a quick jump and they were back at Fexley.

“Detecting three life-signs.” Zenith informed.

“Bring them aboard.” Jeeda said as she rose to go and meet this new Emperor… Empress Jeeda supposed, in the dock when they were brought in. She couldn’t think about Sunatta or what those implications entailed because only time would answer that question. What she could do was meet the warrior that the only oldest living human besides herself had kneeled before. This was a person of great interest to Jeeda. A person she might very well be able to use. Jeeda was not afraid to use her people and this would be an interesting interview.

……….

There was no confusing the fact when the 111^th exited. It exited encircling the still expanding debris field which was once Fexley Station. A perfect circle of monstrous ships exited at least a light-second out, Vina decided, but there was no visible break in the wall- mélange- of ships surrounding them that Vina could detect at all. There may have been a dozen rings of ships surrounding them if what she had heard of the military buildup in progress was true and no reason not to believe.

‘I think they’re here to protect us.’ Vina linked as a small tender departed one of the behemoths and was almost instantly at their side. Before anyone responded to Vina’s comment, in any case.

‘You may be right.’ Den agreed as the little ship sidled up to them and opened a dock. They were quickly aboard and under way.

Falcon – Kent

“Ship’s alert!” Intoned Falcon’s AI ship-wide, the red danger lights beginning to flash throughout, as the Super Dreadnaught suddenly leapt forward at maximum acceleration. “Antz Armada detected in our quadrant.”

“I guess that’s us.” Brac said as he exploded into action. Everyone exploded into action, Kurt right there with them, his military days never to be forgotten and he was moving as quickly as the rest. The military service which Kent had persuaded him to join! Never mind Kent was an Eldritch who was supposed to abhor Fleet, but Kurt hadn’t known that at the time.

Into their newly designed armor-suits first- there was very little difference between these suits and regular spacesuits and Kurt was into his instantly. They were made of the newest materials and could keep the wearer alive for two weeks in open space, but if Kurt was two weeks in open space the insanity would take him long before the two weeks.

A search party would have to be very near to pick up the weak distress signals from their suits. If they got aboard an Antz’ ship and the ship made a quick jump and then ejected them it would be a long horrible death. Not as horrible as the death awaiting them inside those Antz’ ships, should they find themselves unequal to the task.

Kurt said his goodbye to Carla several days ago. So it wouldn’t have to be said again. Both understood he had to go. It wasn’t about proving himself to Kent, this was about fighting for his and his fellow humans right to live. Kurt had a family to think about as did most, and as most were doing, Kurt was fighting.

Kurt recognized something new about Kent as well; Kent was in this for the personal challenge! He cared about the human race, and his family, but by the intent look on Kent’s face, almost mania shining from his eyes, Kurt saw him clearer than he ever had before. What drove a man to live to that age! Kent wanted to find the opponent who could defeat him and he would keep on forever until he did!

Kurt wasn’t sure Kent hadn’t found what he was looking for, that they all hadn’t found that opponent. Two minutes later they were in the APC and awaiting the Super Dreadnaught’s exit. They didn’t have long to wait.

New Hope

“I’d heard you’d reverted but this is almost too much to believe.” The first of the strangers said as they came near enough to be casually heard, a small ironic smile twisting his lips as he approached, as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing. “Everything all right?”

“Everything is fine.” Mavy said with a low look but no inflection, informing him that no, she had not gone insane when she reverted- when she’d rejuv’d into the early teen body she was now stuck in- and that she didn’t particularly like his humor. She’d heard enough already and still years of it to face. You could rejuv back, but only grow as fast as the Universe dictated.

“I guess you’re not offering the story of how you came to be dressed…“ He began again but Mavy cut him.

“Some unfortunate little girl lost her life and I happened to find the suitcase. Any more asshole questions?” Marty Bedlam was known to her.

“Nope.” Bedlam said. Mavy wasn’t insane.

“What’s up Bedlam?” Pitan said walking up. The two shook hands warmly. Bedlam was his last name but it fit his character so well it had become permanent. He was also no match for Mavy. There were few who were. Though Bedlam was little short of a maniac Pitan thought well of him. It was all act and there was actually a decent person underneath, not that you’d ever find him in there. The façade had been built over long centuries and was unbreakable but Pitan liked him anyway, though he couldn’t exactly remember when it was he had seen him last.

“Heard you were in trouble here and came to the rescue.” Anthony Uthich said as he also joined them, the one other among this group that was known to them. He had no jokes about Mavy’s clothing though and didn’t give it a second glance. He wouldn’t have wanted to be stuck in reversion at this time either and she was obviously making do as best she could. Better than the others, it appeared.

“You came in via ship?” Mavy asked Anthony, knowing Anthony wasn’t a native and surprised- very surprised- to see him here. Uthich was an Eldritch Mavy could admire when in truth there were so few who fit in that category- in her opinion- the Eldritch comprised of every type just like the rest of society. It still never ceased to amaze her to find people like Bedlam somehow still surviving. An amazingly successful survivor, in fact, with his grating personality! It took every type, she supposed.

Anthony wasn’t as old as she- not even close- but was highly respected and an extremely capable individual. Maybe even progressed far enough to be her match, she thought speculatively as she openly scrutinized him. Humans who lived their lives in martial readiness were unable to stop these thoughts, unable to stop measuring all around them, though the two were friends of long and that would never occur. There was a new confidence about Anthony that was clear- wars broke some people, but hardened the few who survived. She could see that Anthony Uthich had been hardened by this war.

“Got here too late for the fighting though, it appears.” Bedlam answered instead while Uthich returned Mavy’s scrutiny, now maybe really seeing her for the first time, now that he had progressed far enough to be able to.

“The entire human race has become what China was in the twentieth century.” Uthich said instead after his own enlightening look into Mavy.

“I remember you were an ancient Chinese scholar,” Mavy said, “the only country in the twentieth century to achieve ninety-nine percent martial training of the populace. If we had only kept that up!”

Uthich introduced the others of his group and Pitan introduced Moguilo and Wayne. A few names Mavy had heard before-most not- or forgotten in the mists of time. Though the old theory that the human brain only used ten percent of its capacity had been refuted long since- the entirety of the brain was never used, different parts of the brain designed to do different things and all these things never in play at once, so only ten percent of the volume of your brain was used- compared to capacity- but the part in use always runs at a hundred percent.

Eldritch were acutely aware of the limitations of the human mind when memories of events and names of people well known simply vanish from memory when new input needs to be stored, especially noticeable during periods of intensive study, when learning new things. Mavy might have been great friends with one or even more present at some long ago point and neither would remember it. Not only did humans have to learn from the mistakes of others, but if you grew old enough you might have to relearn the same things more than once.

“There’ll be plenty more fighting is my guess, and you’re right about those who remain. We’ve once again achieved that ninety-nine percent.” Mavy said. “What are your plans?

“Going out with the evac ships to find some Antz to fight.” Bedlam said. “We just came up ourselves- couldn’t find any Antz at all, missed all the fighting- saw you and thought we might saunter over and ask if you might like to join us.”

“Let’s move out.” Mavy said, but thinking about old China and how it was now all coming full circle on the Antz. The Antz had created their worst enemy- the entire human race standing as individuals.

Califta - Hammerhead

"Long time no see Doc." Captain Graham of the Hammerhead said as he greeted them personally at the exterior hatch of their ship as they debarked into his dock.

"Back in service." Doc said merely, making no judgment.

"Experienced pilots were needed." Graham said easily, this certainly not the first time he caught slack for changing allegiances, though the way he saw it he hadn’t changed anything- just the manner in which he chose to fight. "Now it seems the Eldritch and Fleet are one and the same."

"I hope you don't think that means I'm taking your orders." Valerie said just as easily. "We're not one."

"Not technically," Graham responded with the same ease, "nor do I envy you your course though I would be coming along if I were able. It's not quite so easy to defect from the Fleet!"

"And as you said pilots are needed." Trent said as they all turned to watch the shuttle depart again. Every available ship which could escape a planet's gravity was involved in the evacuation efforts. Evacuation efforts were underway everywhere across human space and everyone working under the looming threat that the Antz Armadas could show up any time and what it would mean if they did; for those remaining on the surface. "I don't think anyone's holding any animosities against anyone at this time."

"I'm still Fleet and you guys took me in." Sally said with a laugh, which drew a look from Captain Graham

"I'm going to forget I heard that." Graham said.

"You can forget it or spout it she’s still coming with us." Calla said with a smile that spoke volumes. "In fact I’d like to see you try something that ridiculously ignorant."

"I'm still Fleet too." Danny said with his own laugh. Somehow he didn't think Fleet was going to do a damn thing about the fact that they were technically AWOL from their posts. Their posts were about to vanish under photon cannon fire- friendly fire- and they were about to risk their lives on the craziest scheme ever devised!

"I think you’re already serving the highest call," Captain Graham said, "I’ll have your postings transferred to Doc."

"I haven't held an official Fleet position since before you were born." Doc chided Graham gently.

"Oh it was never actually deactivated." Captain Graham assured him. "The resignation was accepted, you were given Honorable Discharge. So though you are not officially under our aegis your rank has remained active, Admiral. I'll have these two transferred to you right away. And by the way, welcome aboard Sir."

New Culver

The spectacle Mac was witnessing was like the computer enhanced fights of the vids and movies, except this was real and no mistaking it. Vlad and Murrell were just demonstrating their skills, but to Mac it appeared as if they were really trying to kill one another. Both were fighting with two swords. The blades moved so quickly it was impossible to follow them. The four blades were little more than blurs around the two men as they danced around one another seeking advantage in the weaving wall of carbon. The clang of carbon on carbon, a continuous explosion of sound that rang from the walls of the dojo, left no mistaking the seriousness of this demonstration!

Mac was able to pull his attention away for a brief moment to glance at Dana to see her expression and it was no less than he had expected. There was rapt fascination written across her face! Mac quickly turned back to watch more of the demonstration, never having actually seen anything like this in real life. He was sure there was fascination written across his own face as well!

The fight took a new tone of seriousness, the rhythmic cadence up until then now changing to more dramatic individual tactics, and immediately apparent Murrell was the superior fighter and then suddenly Murrell was holding his blade fully extended the tip at Vlad's throat!

"Well done, the Murrell of old!" Vlad said as he sheathed his own swords, one fluid movement, even while the tip of Murrell’s sword still remained at his throat- that when even the minutest nick of the one atom edged carbon blade would necessitate a very fast trip to a med bay and quickly into an auto-doc. That's how much trust Vlad had in Murrell’s control. Murrell removed the tip of the blade and sheathed his swords.

"A bit rusty if you ask me." Murrell said. In truth Vlad's skill had surprised him, or maybe not so surprising and he really was rusty. It had been a long time since he had held a sword in his hand. He had to admit it felt good and maybe even a little more than that; that it felt good to be the absolute best. Murrell couldn't fathom now how or why he would've ever wanted to give this up! That he could've possibly thought that way at one time simply was beyond his comprehension now.

"You just needed a good fight." Vlad said, reading his old friend like an open book. That was the two personalities Murrell possessed. On the one hand he seemed exactly what he was, an easy going open-minded humanitarian human being who would give a stranger the shirt off his own back if that stranger was cold, yet on the other hand Murrell could frown. Sometimes human beings just needed to frown once in a while, Vlad philosophized. Then Vlad turned to Mac;

"Your turn."

“Ah, I kinda thought Murrell would be training me.” Mac said as Vlad resolutely approached. Dana let out the most genuinely humor filled laugh Mac had ever heard her utter. She was still laughing when Vlad handed him his carbon practice sword. The rest of the day would prove as fascinating for Mac as had the demonstration he had just witnessed, but far more painful.

111^th

Jeanette knew who she was the moment she laid eyes upon her. Even though she was wearing no insignia on her plain uniform. Even though she seemed a small and insignificant person, was standing off in one of the back corners of the dock, and was being totally ignored by everyone else.

Jeanette knew who she was immediately because she felt her. Jeeda Collins was far in advance of Master Sunatta. Not in advance of herself, she recognized immediately- at least not yet Jeanette pondered suddenly- and the more she studied her the more Jeanette was led to the conclusion that she probably wasn’t even aware of the ability she possessed. Not able to access it. An ability Jeanette knew Jeeda Collins possessed the same way Master Sunatta had known she possessed it.

Master Sunatta was gone. It wasn't a link that connected them, not a psychic ability, not able to read his mind, just able to feel his continued existence. The terrible turmoil she had sensed at the end, and then the abrupt cessation of any feeling at all, left Jeanette with the fair sure knowledge that her Master was no more.

Did that mean that it was now left to her to carry on Master Sunatta's work? His cause? The long lost ancient Master’s cause? When right before her stood the very Student who could surpass her! Jeanette knew it with her entire existence. That Jeeda Collins was the Student who could surpass her.

……….

‘She has plans for you.’ Madame Beauchart’s thought came into Jeeda’s mind.

‘Plans for me?’ Jeeda thought highly amused, as she was still trying to devise a way to acquire the Empress for her own purposes. Jeeda only felt Madame Beauchart’s humor as answer as the Empress of the Eldritch descended to the dock and walked straight over to her.

Tall and skinny was Jeeda’s first impression. Entirely artless with no grace what-so-ever, as if she had no coordination what-so-ever, yet Jeeda was instantly on guard as some inner part of her warned of danger not perceivable to the eye. Though she didn’t move a muscle as Jeanette came to stand before her, completely at ease, she was prepared to move, and she knew none who could move faster.

“So you have plans for me.” Jeeda said. A simple statement that paused Jeanette for a brief moment but hardly slowed her down.

“That’s right.” Jeanette said, then she reached out casually and poked a finger into a nerve ending and dropped Jeeda instantly to the deck. No one had seen her move and no one moved while Jeanette bent down and picked Jeeda up, threw her over her shoulder, and headed out of the dock- if there had been cause for alarm the AI would surely have sounded that alarm- though all wore shocked expressions, even among Jeanette’s party. “I think the excitement got to her.” Jeanette said as she departed with the de facto leader of the human race. Stunned faces followed her as she left but not a word was spoken.

Master Sunatta

He felt it when the connection between Jeanette and he was severed. He didn’t know if it was the distance they had traveled- still in jump and having traversed who knew how many light-years already- but he suspected it was It, which he now knew intimately because It spent every nano-moment of It’s time clawing at his mind trying to gain entrance.

Master Sunatta was not psychic but nor was he weak willed. Without permitting entrance It could not get in. Sunatta scrutinized It- a mélange of thoughts, feelings, emotions, half understood meanings all swirling just outside his mind, even while his swords continued to decimate every Ant that came against him.

Master Sunatta had to give It It’s due, even as he fought, his swords an impenetrable wall around himself and tens of thousands of Antz already dead all throughout the Antz ship- no way to have counted throughout the massacre- yet It would not use technology to defeat him.

Hastily set up auto-cannons were blocking his path to engineering and the drive sections. Those auto-cannons could have obliterated him many times as he had unwittingly walked under their muzzles, the small noise of their servo-motors warning him he was being tracked. He did not dare try to force his way past them, It’s tolerance would then come to an end.

The stream of Antz pouring down upon him suddenly ceased. The last of them cut to shreds and Sunatta now alone with It. Two days of non-stop fighting and now he was- if not in control of the ship- at least in sole possession of it. Then he was proven wrong. The ship suddenly dropped out of jump. Far off noises a long distance away told of monstrous ships docking. Then from that far off distance the unmistakable sound of the Antz as they approached.

“I begin to see.” Master Sunatta said, though as yet undaunted. His greatest challenge ever, and doesn’t everyone, deep inside themselves, really want to see just how far they can push themselves! Master Sunatta knew then, at that moment, that he was going to find out.

Falcon - Kent

The APC was only a very small ship and only built for one purpose, that of ferrying sword fighters to Antz ships, yet of necessity it was equipped with an AI. The new drive technology was vastly more complex than anything the human race had ever produced and only an AI could operate the system. With no question, given time, it would be standardized so that even a human pilot could use it, but the velocities at which the drive could move a ship were far beyond a human’s ability to perceive.

There was no sensation of movement within the ship at all as it slipped free of the dock into open space. Then it simply accelerated and hit jump at the same time, acquiring jump velocity instantly and instantly vanishing.

“Wow!” Brac said. “Inertia-less drive.”

“Wow is how fast it’s getting us there.” Brent said as they fell out of jump and clear on scan was the Antz Armada reported to be here.

“It’s waiting for us.” Paul observed.

“It is waiting for us.” Kurt said.

“Makes our job that much easier.” Kent said with a smile, because at this point there was nothing left but to go forward. If the Antz were waiting for them it was something he could understand; this It wanted to test Kent’s mettle as much as Kent wanted the same. Something understandable to Kent.

“Getting on the Antz’ ships is the least of our job.” Brac said with a measuring look into Kent’s face that neither misunderstood the meaning of. Brac recognized then why Kent was here and even why the Antz were waiting for them, but the simple fact was it did not matter why any of them were here or even that it was obvious the Antz were going to welcome them aboard, this was war and new tactics were needed. Were they all going to die this day? Brac was sure they were, but he had an eagerness of his own and in his own way was looking forward to it as much as Kent. As much as all of the rest of them, he decided after a quick glance around.

“Whatever’s about to happen, it’s about to happen.” Brac said. The exterior of the little ship was suddenly glowing a light blue and then they were beside the Antz Armada and the APC’s external hatch popped. The APC was carrying nothing but them and vacuum, cycling out the atmosphere as they approached. Kent was the first one out.

Super Dreadnaught Venice – in transit

“Good Lord!” Mavy exclaimed as she began reading the briefing on her seat-screen even as the shuttle lifted off. “The Antz got Master Sunatta.”

“Good Lord he attacked an Antz’ ship by himself!” Bedlam said as he read the article they were all at that moment reading. It was the headline story everywhere.

“All Eldritch are planning to assault Antz’ ships with swords alone?” Pitan asked as he got the gist of what he was reading.

“That’s the story.” Bedlam said. “I didn’t think they would really go through with it though.”

“I believed they would try,” Uthich said with a speculative look on his face, “but I didn’t think they’d actually get aboard.”

“They didn’t!” Mavy said as she scanned through the article. “Only Sunatta that old fool and he did it with a grav-suit. Slipped right through the Antz’ shield, apparently.” Which didn’t make sense even with her limited knowledge of particle shields.

“Nothing can slip through one of our shields.” Moguilo said with a grin. “The Antz found that out the hard way.”

“Actually,” Wayne said to Mavy, “there’s no way a grav-harness should be able to slip through a stronger particle shield. They both employ the same particle field and the larger more powerful field would be dominant. He should have bounced right off that shield.”

“He shouldn’t have been able to slip through that shield.” Uthich agreed, still with that speculative look on his face, not sure what it all meant but it just not making sense to him.

“Why weren’t you going along?” Mavy asked Uthich.

“We were just waiting for the deployment of the new APC’s and since we were bored dropped in to find a little fighting first.” Bedlam answered for him.

“That about sums it up.” Uthich agreed, wondering if he could still be thinking about doing the same thing himself. He must be a madman if he was, but that only left one fact- he was a certified madman.

“Still planning on going?” Mavy asked.

“Yep.” Bedlam answered for him.

“That about sums it up.” Uthich agreed with his grating friend. Grating without a question but a man you could trust at your back and that was what counted with Uthich.

They were all still engrossed in the details when the shuttle docked with Venice.

Hammerhead – in transit

“What are our orders Admiral?” Valerie asked without a hint of innuendo. Not that could be detected audibly anyway. She was laughing inside, no question about that.

“I’ve never heard of anyone being given any kind of discharge where the rank remains active.” Calla said with her own inscrutable look. If there was one thing you could count on with the Eldritch was that they had long since learned how to control their tells- visible body language whether it’s written on their faces or given away in body language. Solid poker players all- in most cases.