4: Lunar Strike
“… Captain?” Zenith stared at Soban expectantly. “Captain! Your orders?”
For the first time in countless years, the Captain felt fear, as he stared at the virtual image of the keepers on his displays.
A little over three times the size of Manaan, built with a chassis resembling the common frigate platform, the keepers sported two powerful sustained ion cannons and eight pulsar beam turrets. To either side its nose, a long thin pylon ran perpendicular, ending with a shorter pair of vertical protrusions at the tips, serving as part of its sophisticated sensors array. Perhaps the most terrifying visual trait was its forward-facing drone hangar, the opening giving the vessel the appearance of wide open jaws. Captain Soban was about to find out just how hard they could bite.
“Run,” he whispered. “RUN! Turn us around, ahead flank! Nova, prepare the flak cannon! Shining! Bridge! Now!”
Manaan jerked itself around, executing an emergency manoeuvre while the two keepers gave chase.
Zenith monitored the situation closely. “The keepers appear to be matching our speed, but sensors show several smaller objects emerging from the pair.”
“Attack drones. Prepare to defend!” the Captain announced. “We might be able to hold them off in the short run, but there’s nothing I can do about the keepers.”
“Meaning what exactly?” Twilight asked, her voice tremulous.
“Meaning we are trapped here. We cannot outrun them, and I will not risk returning to your planet and bringing them with us. Remember what I said about the movers attacking foreign technology? It applies to all automated Progenitor warships. We have to lead the keepers as far away as possible. It may not even matter, but we have to try.”
“Based on current drone velocity, the first wave will intercept us in approximately forty-two minutes,” Zenith continued, maintaining composure.
“Are we going to di—”
“Shut up, Twilight!” Soban snapped. “Nova, how many rounds do we have left?”
“Ahh, I can’t give you exact numbers, but we still have several crates of ammunition remaining. It should be enough to keep us going non-stop for a few hours.”
“I came as soon as I heard, Captain!” Shining Armour burst into the bridge, out of breath. “What’s going on?”
“In forty minutes, all hell is going to break loose, that’s what's going on. Be ready with your shield when they get closer.”
“Captain! Hyperspace signature detected!” Zenith called out.
A yellow energy screen appeared ahead of one of the keepers. Within a few seconds, the keeper disappeared inside it, and the screen dissipated.
“The keeper is short-jumping. We need to change course!”
Manaan turned ninety degrees, just as another yellow screen materialised three kilometres to one side of the frigate, ejecting the first keeper, which had already begun spitting out drones.
“Incoming drones!” the Captain yelled. “Shining, get the shield up, now! Target the lead drone, Firelance!”
Mere seconds after Shining Armour brought up his shield, the first of four drones had unleashed its dual plasma weaponry upon Manaan.
“Fire!”
Manaan shuddered, as the flak rounds barely emerged from the frigate before detonating. Shining’s shield had blocked the rounds.
“What the—” Nova’s voice was barely heard over the radio, drowned out by a barrage of vulgarities from Firelance.
“How did I not even consider that to be a problem?” Soban smacked himself on the forehead. “Shining, are you able to focus the shield to only cover where we are getting attacked? We need an opening to fire from.”
“I’ll give it a try, but I need to know exactly where the drones are coming from.”
“Take Zenith’s place”—Soban pointed—“Those two screens to the left are your short-range sensors. Firelance, get ready to fire again!”
Shining Armour concentrated, staring at the screens that now indicated six drones swarming over Manaan. He adjusted his shield accordingly, only covering areas the approaching drones targeted. Shining nodded towards the Captain as soon as he thought he was ready.
“Now Firelance! Give them everything we’ve got!”
Another pair of rounds were hurled out of the dorsal cannon, exploding directly in front of an attack drone and sending it veering off course momentarily.
“Minimal damage, Captain!” Zenith commented while she peered over Shining Armour at another screen. “We’re going to need a load of hits just to take one down.”
“Keep firing!”
Round after round, crate after crate of expended ammunition, six drones were reduced to two damaged ones, as Manaan continued to unleash its clouds of fire upon the remaining hostile craft.
“Shining! The drone right behind us!” Zenith cried.
Shining Armour adjusted accordingly, but not before a pair of plasma rounds barely slipped past, damaging one of the five main drives.
“We’ve lost six percent of our thrust!” the Captain shouted. “That keeper is going to catch up to us!”
“Hyperspace signature, Captain! Four kilometres ahead,” Zenith continued reporting.
“Incoming keeper, hard to port!”
“Another hyperspace signature—no, multiple signatures! Fourteen kilometres ahead of us!”
Seven blue hyperspace windows of various sizes appeared, with a large yellow one at the head of the group. As the ships emerged, profiles and markings of all ships in the group were recognised just as easily as those of the keepers.
“Sajuuk! Sajuuk has arrived! Head for that ship!” Soban yelled, smashing a fist on to the comms. “Fleet Command, flak frigate Manaan requesting immediate assistance. Two keepers inbound, I repeat, two keepers inbound!”
A familiar female voice responded. “Soban? You have been listed as missing in action for over two months!”
“Yes yes, long story. Get those ships off my back!”
“Acknowledged. Dock with the Shipyard Nabaal. We will hold them off,” Fleet Command responded.
“Negative! I have civilians on board who need to be returned to that planet nearby. I’ll explain later. Just get me into low orbit.”
“Understood, Captain. Once you are in range, battlecruiser Masmak will provide the jump and escort. Make it quick.”
“Everypony, cover your eyes,” Soban ordered the bridge personnel. “It’s going to become real bright in a few seconds.”
Even from Manaan’s point of view, the sides of Sajuuk could be seen glowing increasingly brighter. Immediately after the crew had shielded their eyes, a colossal beam blasted out from Sajuuk, its area of effect narrowly avoiding Manaan, striking the closest keeper, and attack drone that happened to be in the way. After the beam dissipated, multiple heavy torpedoes whizzed past the retreating frigate, impacting with the disoriented keeper, before another pair finished off the final attack drone.
Manaan maintained course, as the damaged keeper phased out and rapidly repaired itself. The second keeper remained in pursuit, while every weapon within range targeted and pummelled the immortal vessel with high velocity metal, ion beams and torpedoes.
“You’re in range, Manaan. Stand by for hyperspace,” the Masmak’s Captain communicated.
Manaan came to a halt, allowing a blue hyperspace window to open up and swallow the frigate. In a tenth of a second, Manaan and its escort emerged in orbit around the planet.
“Thanks for the ride, Masmak. Forget the escort, go assist the fleet and return in an hour. Soban out.”
As the battlecruiser disappeared into hyperspace, Manaan adjusted course for re-entry while Shining Armour surrounded the vessel with his shield once more.
“I thought you said your ship didn’t have a hyperdrive,” Twilight wondered while Manaan punched through the upper atmosphere.
“You thought correctly. We have a wake-jump drive. Hyperdrives are too large to fit into a frigate, so we use the smaller wake-jump drives, allowing us to enter hyperspace if a hyperdrive-equipped vessel initiates it.”
“That’s the first thing you comment on, Twilight? Some technological curiosity?” Shining Armour grew increasingly agitated.
“I—I was just wondering how the frig—”
“Forget the feathering frigate!” Shining bellowed, rounding on Soban. “You, Captain, have led some unstoppable robotic killing machines right to our doorstep!”
“If it’s any consolation, Shining, we have the best chance of drawing them away from your solar system,” Soban responded.
“Any con—ANY CONSOLATION? Is that supposed to make me feel better about your blunder?” Shining Armour prodded the Captain with a hoof. “Oh yes, I feel so much better, knowing the mighty Captain Soban has a better chance of destroying something indestructible! What happens once they finish slaughtering your people, huh?” he continued jabbing the Captain. “I gave you the benefit of the doubt when I first heard about you, but now I see you have been nothing but trouble from day on—”
Captain Soban throttled Shining Armour, pinning the stallion to the wall. “And just what do you think would have happened if you would have woken up those movers, huh? What] do you think would have happened in your early years of space exploration if your kind had discovered the Eye by themselves? You speak of slaughter, yet your inexperience would have Equestria decimated! I will not allow that to happen, so don’t you dare talk down to me, soldier!” Soban spat, releasing the trembling unicorn and returning to his seat.
Twilight watched the short-lived confrontation in shock, unsure if she should have intervened. Hesitantly, she crept towards her brother, and the two exchanged hushed words that were inaudible to the rest of the crew. Shining Armour was visibly shaken by the Captain’s outburst, but smiled after his little sister approached to comfort him.
The bridge crew remained tight-lipped for most of the descent towards Canterlot. The air hung thick with fear and uncertainty, although not necessarily due to the Captain’s outburst. After what felt like hours, a calm and composed Soban spoke up. “Blame me for what has happened if you must, but we will do what we can to get them away from your home. I know I don’t exactly inspire confidence in you all at the moment, but we Hiigarans have been in plenty of dire situations before. Whatever it takes, we will fix this.”
Somewhere in the back of the Captain’s mind, he knew a great sacrifice would have to be made to save this planet. His rock-solid facial expression must have had a crack in it, as it set off several similar alarms in Twilight’s mind. Soban noticed her analysing him in the periphery of his vision, though he feigned ignorance, attempting to further solidify an emotionless expression while busying himself with pre-docking checks.
Manaan proceeded to dock at its familiar location underneath the castle. The scientists and crew trudged out while Soban leaned against the airlock controls. After the final passenger and crew member disembarked, they formed a rank in front of the confused Captain, saluting. Soban simply hammered his fist on the controls, unwilling to gaze into the glistening eyes of Pinkie and Twilight, or the sorrowful, demoralised faces of most of his crew. He simply watched the exterior doors slide over the view of the equines for the last time.
“Farewell,” he whispered.
The Captain remained on the bridge for several long minutes while Manaan followed its course out and away from the planet’s atmosphere automatically. Eventually, he decided to pass the time by taking a leisurely walk throughout the empty vessel. With his hands behind his back, he made his way past the crew quarters, reminiscing over the time he accidentally scared Fluttershy. He found it …
“Cute”, Soban laughed. Huh, there’s a word I’ve never used before.
The Captain made his way towards the weapons section, recalling the company of Nova and Firelance, the two of whom he may have considered his best friends. Now that he thought about it, the Captain never really had any close friends. Looking around, he absentmindedly slid open the breech of each cannon, half disappointed, half relieved to find them empty. He sighed, returning to the bridge.
As Soban stepped back on to the bridge, he spotted a night-blue pony with wings and a horn, occupying his seat in an oddly nonchalant fashion.
“Princess … Luna?” Soban blinked, astonished.
The Princess of the night smiled softly. “I hardly think you should have expected us to allow you to leave so easily. Your presence in Equestria has ushered us into an era of great discoveries and wonders, and our paths have become intertwined, for better or worse. Your people refuse to abandon us while they battle a foe they cannot defeat. We cannot simply stand by and watch. Therefore, we would like to return the favour by offering our assistance.”
“Princess, you said it yourself. We are battling a foe we cannot defeat. We are going to draw the keepers as far as possible from your world. You have to leave.”
Luna shook her head. “You seem to think you are always the one with the brilliant plans Captain, but this time it is ours you shall listen to.”
“About time, Manaan! The situation is grim here,” Masmak reported. “Two of our destroyers have heavy hull ruptures and are venting atmosphere. We are proceeding with our backup plan. We will attempt to catch them in our hyperspace wake and abandon them at Balcora. Stand by, we will jump in and take you.”
Manaan slowed to a stop in low orbit. “That’s damn near suicide! Negative, Masmak. Fleet Command, engage hyperspace and leave the keepers for me to deal with. Return in ten minutes.”
“I assume you have a plan?” Fleet Command’s voice joined in.
“We do.”
“We?”
“Just go! No time to explain!”
“I hope you know what you are doing Captain. Good luck. Sajuuk out.”
The fleet far ahead of Manaan disappeared, abandoning the frigate with the two keepers. Though the Captain had no visual on the keepers, time still seemed to slow to a crawl while the gaze of the keepers fell upon him, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to rise.
“Alright Princess. The moment of truth. Do it.”
In a bright flash, Manaan appeared several hundred kilometres away from the moon and held its position while Soban and Luna baited the keepers. Sure enough, a pair of hyperspace signatures were detected, as the keepers initiated their short-jump manoeuvre towards the helpless frigate.
“Here they come. Let’s do this.”
Manaan swung about, its engines blasting away while the frigate headed nose-first towards the moon. Moments later, the keepers appeared nearby.
“Not good! I didn’t expect them to be in weapons range. You sure we can’t just do it now?”
“I need time to prepare. Just a few seconds …” Luna replied, shutting her eyes in deep concentration.
“They’re bringing ion cannons to bear!”
Manaan shook violently, as two pairs of sustained ion cannon beams began to cut through Manaan, impacting the engine fairing and gradually moving diagonally towards the bridge section on the starboard side of the frigate, while a sizzling noise resounded throughout the cabin.
“Now or never, Luna!”
“Just … a little … more!” Luna struggled, emitting an increasingly brighter amount of light from her horn with each second.
A sudden drop in cabin pressure preceded the popping of a pair of ears while a long, low-pitched alarm accompanied the sound of rooms, sections, and compartments throughout the frigate being sealed off.
“Hull breach! Ship is under lock-down! We’re going to break apart, Luna!”
“NOW!” Luna bellowed in a much deeper voice, opening her now pure-white eyes. A shock-wave of magic discharged from her horn, blinding Soban and knocking him sideways out of his seat. The last thing the Captain heard before blacking out was the sound of teleportation.
When Soban finally regained consciousness, he noted his ship was drifting, slowly tumbling through space. The bridge was completely devoid of even a flicker of light, and the artificial gravity of the vessel was inoperable. Princess Luna’s motionless body floated about, and a surge of adrenaline drove Soban to her side.
“Princess? Princess, are you alright? Luna?” Soban felt for a pulse. It was weak, but it was there.
Luna stirred. “Did—did we make it?” She mumbled.
“I think so. At least, no keepers are pursuing us. Come on, let’s get you into one of the seats.”
“What happened to the lights? And the gravity?”
“Power must have failed. We took a horrible beating. I think it’s safe to say the keepers got the worst of it though,” Soban grunted, securing the exhausted Princess into a seat. “If they can survive getting the moon thrown at them, I give up. Damn, the ship is completely unresponsive.”
“Perhaps”—Luna pointed outside—“that might be the reason why.”
Soban looked in the direction of Luna’s hoof, at Manaan. Or at least, what was left of it, from a hundred metres away. A charred path of melted metal was drawn from the engine fairing, straight towards the section connecting the ship to where the bridge had been. Even from this distance, coolant could be seen venting from the derelict hulk, originating from the engine section where a significant portion of hull was missing.
Though he could not hear it, the Captain watched his vessel groan in agony. As the reactor finally went critical, the entire rear end of the warship split open with its eventual detonation, leaving naught but debris as the explosion subsided.
Luna placed a hoof on Soban’s shoulder. “I’m sorry about your ship, Captain.”
The Captain smiled weakly. “What’s a single ship, for countless lives? There’s nothing to be sorry about.”
With no controls, all Soban and Luna could do was to wait for the fleet to arrive. To their relief, they didn’t have to wait long. Within the minute, the fleet returned. A resource collector was dispatched to retrieve the bridge of Manaan and return it to the Nabaal.
After the airtight doors to the bridge were forcefully removed by the shipyard crew, Captain Soban and Princess Luna emerged to a crowd of Hiigarans, applauding and cheering them on. After the events that had transpired, none of the Nabaal’s crew seemed to even care that Soban walked beside an alien quadruped. After a brief medical exam, Captain Soban and Princess Luna were escorted to a conference room for discussions between the fleet Captains and Fleet Command.
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C4 up! Shortest chapter so far, but hopefully I've made up with the amount of action in it.
Dear god, I'm not looking forward to the beginning of C5. I need to come up with names for all the ships in the fleet, along with their captains!
I think I'm going to take a day or two off from writing first.
I don't always beat the Keepers, but when I do, I prefer to bludgeon them with the moon.
Fantastic chapter and I cannot wait to see the next one.
Cheers
GM
Dropping a moon on annoying things is a good method. lol
Wait till Celestia takes a whack at it.
Keepers in your way? Throws the moon at them.
Multiple Drones in your way? Make a better shield.
Sajuuk kicking ass? Hell yes.
Awesome as always. keep it up bro.
DAYUM!
Awesome story so far. Keep it up! I'm hopefully getting Homeworld 2 sometime next week, still have homeworld 1 to beat -.-
HW1 is best pony
:P yeah, cant wait to see the vaygr in the campaign...
Just a quick heads-up to y'all...There may be a slight delay with the next chapter. It's a few hundred words shorter than C4, so I'm going to release it with the chapter afterwards, as well. Keep an eye out for two new chapters around next week or so (or I might release them a day or two apart, who knows...).
Despite being the shortest chapter so far, C5 is currently a bitch to write. Too much talking. Need to make it more interesting. Partly why it's short...Wouldn't want to bore you folks!
1395350 Yes...she uses her...Death Star...oh the horrible pun
I think I'm going to have to read this Homeworld series, if it is as interesting as this story then it should be good.
1447854
Terrible puns are best puns!
Its a space Rts game fyi, its a really good yet overlooked one at that.
Hey guys, really sorry for not sticking to my usual 'chapter per week' schedule. I've been working on the Brony@Home website, and things are a little hard to do when you learn as you go along (shameless advertisement: http://www.bronyathome.org ).
Anyway, I don't have an ETA on the next chapter, but hopefully it should be no more than one week. Once again, my apologies.
1448494 an RTS you say
Excellent
In Soviet Equestria, The moon goes to you.
Favorite chapter so far, hiiggy!
Bit weird the Sajuuk couldn't kill the Keepers. It's Progenitor technology too, powered by three Cores, and was able to obliterate the planet killers which nothing else could even scratch. Keepers COULD be damaged by conventional Hiigaran weapons, they just phased away and auto-repaired and came back with full health.
That said, Luna throwing the goddamn moon at the things was absolutely awesome.
Wouldn't a salvage corvette get the ship's bridge, not a resource collector.
Dont tell me shes going to hit them with the moon *down on the planet twilight watching the moon (moon shifts comically in the sky and than moves back to its place)