The Nautilus Protocol

by Knight Breeze

Chapter VIII

Chapter VIII

“Okay boys, we'll be in perfect position to ambush this convoy as we come out of Hyperspace, they won't know what hit them until it's too late!” Hale said over the radio.

“That's assuming that the intel was correct and they don't have a Psywarrior on board,” He heard Jim reply a bit pessimistically.

“Stop jinxing us Jimbo!” Alexis chastised him. “As far as you know, everything is going to go off without a hitch!”

“Valhalla to Little-Big Squadron, we are approaching our destination. ETA is two minutes,” Hale heard Colonel Vivak's voice over the radio.

“You heard the lady, keep your eyes open and stay frosty,” Hale ordered over the radio. Hale then took his head between his hands and, with deliberate slowness, twisted it one direction, then the other. He was rewarded with several satisfying pops, as well as a sensation of relief in his neck.

As he did this, he took a second to contemplate the view outside his fighter's cockpit. He always became melancholic right before battle, and seeing the passing Hyperspace only served to deepen that feeling. It was so beautiful, yet he wasn't able to fully appreciate the sight because of the coming conflict. Hale briefly wondered what he would have done with his life had the Dridune never existed. He could have been a chef, or a farmer, or...

“Exiting Hyperspace in three... two...”

He might have done a lot of things, but those thoughts were for another day. Now it was time to...

Oh dear.

“What in the name of-” he heard Alexis gasp over the radio.

“Sweet Baznault above, is that a Capital ship!?!” Jim swore over the radio.

“All ships retreat! I repeat, this is a priority one order! Get out of there NOW!” Colonel Vivak started screaming.

Captain Hale started inputing the command into his console, but was stopped as his fighter rocked violently. A grinding hum reverberating through his ship made his heart fall, and a quick look at his instruments only confirmed what he knew in his heart was true.

A large tachyon pulse had fried his Hyperspace emitters.

His shields normally would have been able to prevent that from happening, but Hyperspace prevents their use during a jump, and afterwards they take roughly a half a minute to charge. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what had happened.

The Dridune had been waiting for them.

As they had come out of Hyperspace, the pricks had fired a tachyon pulse, taking advantage of the Alliance ships' momentary weakness. True, that meant that the Dridune had probably fried their own emitters, but that didn't really matter much if they won the battle.

And seeing as how that was a Capital ship out there, with probably a dozen Psywarriors on board, Captain Hale seriously doubted the Alliance's chances of pulling a win out of this one.

“All fighters scramble! Keep moving, and don't keep any formation!” Hale shouted as he quickly pulled back on his control stick while accelerating forward. The fighter responded beautifully, shooting forward and pulling up.

That order, as well as his following action, were probably all that saved him and his men from what happened next. Blaster fire and antimatter torpedoes lit up the nose of his ship, but he was barely able to dodge the incoming fire. A few of his squad wasn't so lucky, and he saw their IFF tags go dark on his monitor.

What was strange about that however was the direction of the incoming fire. Aside from the tachyon pulse, the enemy ship hadn't even fired a single shot.

“Crap, not you guys!” Alexis shouted over the intercom as she dodged an antimatter torpedo launched from the G.A.S.N. Valhalla.

“Stay focused! Those Psywarriors can only control so many, and I doubt that they've taken the whole ship.” Hale shouted at his men. “Get withing ramming distance of that capital ship and light them up!”

“Sir, we won't last long against their point defense weapons at that range!” Jim shouted back in terror.

“If the enemy keeps the bridge crew firing at us, we'll be able to do quite a bit of damage to the enemy ship from friendly fire alone. It may even give the rest of the crew aboard the Valalla time to re-take the ship,” Hale responded as he narrowly avoided a blast that would have taken him out.

“But sir...”

“Jim, just do it! It's our only chance!” Quelik shouted at him. “Otherwise we are just sitting ducks out-gha!”

Quelik's voice suddenly cut out, but a quick glance at the IFF told Hale that Quelik was still flying strong. What the heck happened to-

Realization dawned on Captain Hale roughly around the same time that his ship was hit. The Valhalla had stopped firing at them, but roughly half of Hale's squadron had suddenly started firing at the other half. Hale had only seconds to contemplate this as his ship started to spiral out of control.

His engines had been hit, and he knew that it was only a matter of time before his reactor overloaded. Thinking quickly, he grabbed hold of the manual release and pulled.

A loud ker-chunk sound shook his vessel, quickly followed by his ship accelerating forwards at an alarming rate. Anyone who had happened to look in his direction would have seen his V shaped fighter eject its core, quickly followed by the core itself exploding in deep space. The force of the blast pushed the now powerless fighter off course and away from the fight.

“I've lost my power core!” he shouted over the intercom. “All fighters that can still think for themselves, break off and attack the Capital Ship!” he instructed as he rerouted all of his auxiliary power to his oxygen recyclers. He knew that without the main core, he probably only had about an hour of oxygen left...

A faint hissing noise quickly disabused him of that notion. He was venting atmosphere, which meant he probably only had about ten minutes left. Thinking quickly, he put on his re-breather helmet and programed the re-cycler to pump all available air out of the cabin and into the reserve tanks. He knew that he had probably only bought himself a few more minutes, but that was still a few more minutes he could use to survive.

If, by some miracle, the rest of his squad managed to pull a win out of this battle, they could retrieve his marooned spacecraft and hopefully save his life. He was holding out hope for that outcome.

He truly felt helpless at that moment, being unable to do anything other than sit and watch as his own men tore each other to pieces. He couldn't even listen in on what was happening because all of his power was going towards keeping him alive. He hated this feeling, the feeling of watching your friends attack and kill each other, but being unable to do anything about it.

His last thoughts as he blacked out were of home.

Author's Note:

A little bit of backstory, showing how the Valhalla was captured.
Comments, advice, and criticism is all welcome, just don't expect another chapter until after finals.
Also, even though my proofreader has taken a look at this, he hasn't reviewed the updated product yet. While it isn't a first draft by any stretch of the imagination, it is still an early draft, so anything in these two chapters is subject to change.

Comments

[Felyon]

Interesting work. Warp-technology and weapons with drawbacks, well thought out ship design, and descriptive battles without coming over as cluttered.

It's made quite clear that the Dridune like their mental manipulations. Turning enemy forces against each other, spying, blasting or hampering foes in combat, etc.

[Ese Wey]

I've got to say I'm enjoying every chapter I read more and more. Also, I found this:

He always became melancholy right
before battle,

I think it should be Melancholic.

[PRmedicGoat]

In that last sentence, "his last thoughts were about home." 'Of' fits better than 'about.' Good chapter tho.

[jaroslav]

So why don't they use AI to fight those Dridune?

[Phoen1x]

Get withing

within

Only issue I found in the whole chapter. Not bad.

[James Fire]

It may even give the rest of the crew aboard the Valalla time to re-take the ship,”

Valhalla?