Fight For Life
Captain Adrian Spain wore his usual stern and serious look, an appearance that the dog morph had cultivated assiduously ever since joining Star Fleet as a cadet. Anything else tended to give him an aspect of adorable cuteness which had been the bane of the cocker spaniel’s life. Curly golden hair and large floppy ears simply did not have the same gravitas as a German Shepherd or mastiff. Of course he had been the butt of many a joke due to his looks, some light-hearted, but too many had been mocking or nasty. In spite of this, he had borne the harassment with studied indifference and graduated at the top of his class. That dedication to his career had resulted in a steady rise through the ranks until he had achieved command of a ship of his own – the FSS Centurion. Today, his seniority saw him in charge of all four ships that had been sent to investigate the fate of the Halcyon colony. He gazed seriously at the visages of the three other captains on the large view-screen.
“To sum up, Captain Haaster is to take the Ultimax and concentrate on scanning the planet to determine the condition of the colony, and whether there are colonists requiring rescue.”
The female Voxxan nodded in agreement.
“Captain Adrax will follow closely in the Warrior Spirit and ensure that the Ultimax is fully defended while their crew is scanning.”
The blue-striped Rakshani’s scowl had not changed throughout the final briefing. He had been quietly hoping that he would get a chance to put the aliens’ defenses to the test. He had probably lost a close cousin in that colony.
“Captain Firedrop will position the Katapult further back to actively seek out the enemy craft. Because phaser fire was of only limited use against the enemy’s armor, we’ll see if the Katapult’s mass driver is more effective.”
The black-furred and red-spotted chakat grinned. “I’ve yet to see the armor that can stop one of my depleted uranium shells.” Shi was far too eager to use the weapon against something other than practice targets.
Spain frowned at the chakat. “The line-of-sight nature of that weapon makes it cumbersome, so don’t neglect your other weapons. I will have your back in any case.” His eyes scanned across all three of the captains. “Remember that above all else, it is of vital importance that we get absolutely as much data on the enemy as possible. Was the ship a lone scout? What is its full offensive potential? Can we determine its purpose there? And what is that bizarre unknown energy that was used so devastatingly against Federation ships? The fate of other colonies might depend on what we learn today.”
“The ship may have moved on since the Betelgeuse escaped from it,” Haaster pointed out.
“In which case we will have lost a valuable opportunity to learn about the enemy, but we may be able to concentrate on determining what has happened to the colony and search for survivors without worrying about being attacked. Whatever the case, we go in expecting the worst. Although the Science Corps has tweaked our shields, even they admit that they have no idea if that will be of any benefit against the enemy’s strange plasma weapon, so play it smart and assume nothing.” Spain rose to his feet. “Captains, we arrive in five minutes. Red Alert conditions are now in effect. All weapons and defenses set to maximum. Good fortune, gentlebeings.”
Spain’s First Officer, a Caitian named M’Nassaleeta, closed the comm connection and triggered the Red Alert. “All hands to battle stations. Arrival at Halcyon in five minutes,” she announced before turning to the cocker spaniel morph. “What do you expect that we’ll find, sir?”
Spain nodded at the small catlike officer. “The Federation has been extremely fortunate so far in its encounters with new species. Aside from some initial clashes with the Rakshani, our history has been fairly peaceful. I believe that eventually we are going to run out of luck, and this unknown enemy may be our turning point. I hope that I am wrong, but I fear that we are seeing the beginnings of a much larger conflict.”
As they headed out of the briefing room to the bridge, M’Nassaleeta said, “So you expect that we will find that ship there?”
“Nassa – I’m praying that that’s all we find today.”
As they stepped onto the bridge, one of the crew announced, “Captain on the deck!” The officer in charge surrendered the command chair to the captain and took up a position at another station. Spain settled into the chair, his eyes scanning the bridge and assessing the ship’s readiness. “Report!” he barked.
“Shields at maximum!”
“Phasers hot and ready!”
“Anti-matter missiles ready!”
“Plasma bombs ready!”
“All scanners set for maximum resolution!”
“Attack and evasion flight patterns locked in and ready!”
“Engineering ready!’
“All stations report readiness,” M’Nassaleeta announced. “Three minutes until we drop out of warp.”
The young officer at the navigation station turned toward Spain. “Sir, if I may ask, why bother with the shields if they are ineffective against the enemy’s unknown weapon? We could use the extra power for our own weapons.”
Spain frowned at the navigator. “Ensign, how many different types of weapons does this ship utilize?”
“Umm… three, sir.”
“Is it your considered opinion that the enemy has only the one? Or do you believe that our shields would be useless against all their weapons?”
“Uh, no sir. I retract my suggestion.”
“Good idea. Attend to your station, Ensign.”
The young morph turned his attention back to his board, fearing the likelihood of a poor assessment at the next quarterly performance review for his ill-considered idea.
The remaining couple of minutes dragged by seemingly interminably, but then their warp engines shut down and they dropped out of hyperspace well outside of the planet’s gravitational influence. It is said that no battle plan survives engagement with the enemy, and never was it truer than now. Although they had anticipated the possibility of more ships joining with the single one encountered by the Betelgeuse, no one had dreamed that they would be met by a huge swarm of enemy vessels encircling Halcyon like flies around a corpse. The four Federation ships were immediately in trouble. The enemy ships reacted quickly and started pursuing the Ultimax as it continued on its assignment in spite of the setback. The Warrior Spirit was already bringing its weapons to bear.
Just as had happened to the Betelgeuse, the enemy ships began firing upon the Federation ships without preamble. The plasma weapon was unleashed, but the nimble starships were able to easily dodge at the current range. The Katapult and Centurion immediately joined the fray. As before, phaser fire was far more accurate and successful than the enemy’s plasma, but the blasts that got through the enemy’s shields did little damage to their armor plating. It was time for less conventional armaments.
“Centurion, I’m discontinuing evasive maneuvers to line up a mass driver shot,” Firedrop announced. “I have no shortage of easy targets. Watch my back!”
“We have your back, Katapult,” Spain acknowledged.
As the chakat’s ship stopped accelerating and dodging, it drew the attention of several of the enemy.
“Target Katapult’s hostiles. Fire anti-matter missiles!” Spain commanded.
Several missiles launched, one to each of the attackers. Three connected and exploded, destroying the enemy ships, while the Federation ships’ shields flared as they blocked the torrent of radiation from the anti-matter annihilation of regular matter. Another two missiles were destroyed by energy beams from the enemy ships that continued to approach, only to be hit by more missiles that came from the Katapult. Just because it was focusing on using its mass-driver did not mean that its crew could not use its other weapons. Power was being reserved for the mass-driver though, and the ship shuddered as a steel-clad uranium shell was spat out of the maw of the linear accelerator. It crossed the intervening distance in a blink of an eye and smashed through its target effortlessly. With a gaping hole in its structure, the ship now drifted helplessly. This was exactly what the Federation team had been aiming for – a disabled ship that they could salvage and study. Unfortunately, due to the enormous swarm of enemy ships, they had zero chance of grabbing the derelict.
The battle continued at a frantic pace as the Federation ships struggled to keep out of the path of the plasma shots from the enemy while returning fire with missiles and phasers, trying hard to find a weakness in the enemy’s defenses. Then things made a turn for the worse.
“Sir! More ships approaching from the far side of the planet!” the crew person on Sensors announced, the tension in her voice evident.
Spain considered the holo-viewer which gave a three-dimensional overview of the battlefield. It was rapidly getting crowded with red dots representing the enemy ships.
“Centurion – we have sustained a hit!” came the voice of Captain Haaster. “Shields still ineffective against the unknown plasma. We cannot maneuver sufficiently to avoid all the ships that are pursuing us.”
Spain barked, “Abort your mission, Ultimax. Fall back but continue long-range scanning as you do so. All ships – we are going to be overwhelmed at this rate. Form up and prepare for retreat.”
The Katapult stopped using its mass-driver and concentrated on defensive fire and evasion as they waited for the Ultimax and Warrior Spirit to join them. Spain noted the damage done to a section of the hull of the Ultimax that fortunately had missed the warp engines, but he wondered how many of the crew had not been so fortunate. The enemy closed in on them, seemingly careless of their own safety in their efforts to destroy the Federation ships, but when the Warrior Spirit and the Ultimax finally rendezvoused with the others, Spain gave the order to depart.
“Go to Warp One, withdrawal course Alpha One” Spain commanded. “We still have to assess their FTL capabilities. Increase warp speed just enough to keep ahead of them.”
The four starships slipped into hyperspace, quickly followed by the enemy. As planned, they gradually increased their warp speed until it became obvious that their pursuers could no longer keep up.
“Enemy ships maxed out at Warp 3.2, sir,” the navigator announced.
Spain nodded in acknowledgement and hit the inter-ship comm. “All ships – top speed on current course for the next two hours, then set course for Star Fleet Base Three. Ultimax – status report, and what can you tell us about the colony?”
Haaster replied, “We have made emergency repairs to the bulkhead and we’ll be fine until we get back to the base. Three crew members have been confirmed killed, with fourteen more injured. And what colony? All traces of Federation presence have been erased and resources appropriated by the enemy. No signs of survivors. There’s a huge… nest or something there though.”
An image was sent over from the Ultimax, and Spain stared at it in revulsion. A nest, Haaster had called it, and indeed it resembled something like a wasp’s nest, only the size of a twenty-story edifice. He growled lowly. They had been swarmed like insects, and they built structures like insects. Even their spaceships could now be seen as chitin-armored vessels. Were they indeed dealing with an insectoid species that colonized worlds at the expense of any other species? They had failed in their mission to bring back a ship to discover its secrets and identify their enemy, so it was all speculation. Spain could feel it in his bones though – the Federation was going to have far too many opportunities to try again.
“SURPRISE!”
Coldfire nearly jumped out of her skin as a couple of dozen of her crewmates gathered about her. “What’s all this about then?” she asked as she tried to calm her fluttering heart.
One of the mares replied, “We heard about your pregnancy and we’re throwing you a foal shower.”
Coldfire blinked. “But how? As the Captain pointed out, we are not set up for caring for a foal.”
Amethyst Scroll grinned. “Never underestimate the power of improvisation. Albite Feldspar figured out how to reprogram the fabricators for a few necessities.”
The expectant mother smiled. “I should have known. But you realize that the Captain is going to put both the foal and myself into hibernation as soon as the foal is weaned? We won’t be needing much before then.”
Another mare laughed. “Take it from someone who has raised a filly already – you’re going to need every bit of help that you can get before then. Now hush up and let’s get this shower under way!”
Coldfire giggled. “Okay, let’s see what you’ve come up with.”
As the gaggle of mares drew Coldfire away, Starry watched on with Wandering by her side. “So – you made your decision. Coldfire seems happy.”
Wandering nodded. “Galena recommended against putting Coldfire into hibernation while pregnant. The suspension process runs the risk of interfering with the development of the fetus. She says that a healthy foal would not be a problem though, and suggested to do so after weaning. It seemed the best option, and both parents are happy with that alternative.”
“How did the mares find out it though?”
“I might have let it slip quietly.”
Starry looked at Wandering and snickered. “You big softy!”
Wandering shrugged. “I’ve been a new mother – I wanted Coldfire’s experience to be better than mine.”
“That’s understandable. The foal is going to be notorious for being the first to be born among the stars though.”
“Ah, well, I can’t do much about that. Some things are out of my purview.”
“What if we have a foal of our own?”
Wandering stiffened. “You aren’t suggesting…?”
“Not now. But I would like my foal to be born among the stars too. Or are you planning to stop exploring them after this mission?”
The stallion looked at Starry who returned his gaze hopefully. He smiled back at her. “Y’know – I haven’t made any plans for after the mission, but I like the idea of exploring the stars with you.”
“Keep on wandering the stars, you mean,” she replied with love in her voice.
“With my mate by my side,” he agreed, leaning forward to give Starry a kiss.
“Always,” she replied just before their lips met.
They kissed for a long moment before drawing back and Starry grinned.
“The House of Path bringing Harmony and Friendship to the stars, with Wandering and Starry in the forefront. Sounds like a worthy goal.”
Wandering nodded. “I look forward to the possibility of meeting other civilizations. It’s going to be marvelous!”
“It’s going to be full-scale war if the Swarm makes its way to other inhabited star systems,” Admiral Tirarsk declared.
One of the first things that the special council had decided was to give the enemy a name, and due to the nature of the attacks upon the Federation ships, ‘Swarm’ seemed to be most appropriate. It also gave the situation a frightening edge.
“Our preliminary analysis of the data that Captain Spain’s taskforce brought back suggests aggressive colonizers who eliminate all opposition and take over their resources. The sheer numbers that they dedicate to this task for even a single planet indicates that resisting their invasion is going to be difficult at best. We have no direct evidence of what their plans are beyond Halcyon, but my gut tells me that they won’t stop there indefinitely. Maybe they will take the time to expand their presence on the planet, or maybe they will begin moves to the next star system immediately because they have already established a foothold there, but either way they are coming, and we have to prepare.”
“Has the Science Corps learned any more about the plasma weapon?” Senator Barr asked.
Tirarsk shook his head. “They are still mystified as to the nature of the energy despite the mountain of data that they were provided. However, they have identified a second side-effect that can be used to detect its usage other than the visible light show. It might not be of much use right now, but it is at least a first step.”
Barr sighed. “Not a whole lot of help to us, Admiral. We will have to be alert for future opportunities to discover their secrets. Right now though, I want all star systems between Halcyon and Federation territories to be put under manned or automated surveillance. All colonies in that path are to be on the alert for another swarm. I will be taking what we have discovered to the Federation Council to discuss what has been learned and formulate a response. It’s your task to ensure that we have the time to make an informed and considered decision.”
“Understood, Madame Senator,” the admiral replied. “Hopefully the slow warp speeds that they can achieve will buy us some time.”
The bear morph turned to the others on the special council. “Mr Tomas, Coordinator Blyss, your teams are to go to Stage Two. If the Swarm surprises us and Admiral Tirarsk informs the Federation Council that a colony is threatened, I want the first refugees boarding within minutes.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Tomas replied.
“It will be done,” Blyss added.
“It’s a colt!” Doctor Zubon announced.
The panting and sweat-soaked new mother looked up to see her newborn son in his sire’s arms. Her tired face lit up with delight as Xanth placed their child on the bed against her belly where she gently stroked his mane. The pegasus colt’s pelt was pale blue, and his mane, tail, and wings were striped with various shades of blue-grey. The tiny pony opened his eyes and they could see that they were an even paler blue. If the child had any trace of its sire’s changeling heritage, it was not immediately apparent.
“Do you have a name for our son, darling?” Xanth asked.
“Skyborn. His name is Skyborn,” Coldfire replied.
“That’s a fine name.” Xanth lowered his muzzle to the colt’s and rubbed noses with him. “One more beautiful soul in this wonderful universe.”
“Casualties are estimated at eight percent,” Blyss reported.
“Why so high, Coordinator?” Barr asked. “That is unacceptable!”
“The resources were there, Senator, but many of the Pax colonists refused to leave their land.”
“Weren’t they aware that Star Fleet has had little success at even slowing down the Swarm, let alone stopping them?”
“They were informed of this, but were either convinced that they could defend themselves, or that they would prefer to die trying to defend their land,” the Faleshkarti answered. “I confess that I do not understand this tendency to let emotion override your ability to perceive reality, even to the point of discarding your lives based on your disbelief. You Terran species make some very strange decisions in spite of the facts.”
Barr sighed. “Story of the human race and its morph children, I’m afraid. We will have to deal with the fact that Pax and its remaining colonists are lost to us. Better to concentrate on dealing with the next probable target. Admiral – how long do you think before the Swarm gets to Valhalla Colony?”
“That star system is a long distance from Pax, and we suspect that the Swarm will check out a couple of intervening systems first, although we already know that they have no suitable worlds there. Our best estimate is a little over two and a half years.”
Barr nodded grimly. “I might be replaced by that time, but I expect that you will be preparing as best you can in the meantime.”
“We certainly hope that we can stop them by then, Senator. If we can’t, the future looks dire.”
“Why do you say that, Admiral?”
“Because our analysis of their travel pattern suggests that their next goal after Valhalla would not be a small colony, but a well-established independent world.”
“Which world is that?” Barr asked with trepidation.
“Chakona.”
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Dun-dun-duuuun....!
Wau, tensions are really high here. And cool cliffhanger.
For pony's sake, I can't wait for the next chapter!
I wonder if this is either the Stariionae (depending on the date in the Chakaverse) or else a race of spaceborne changelings. Or if the changelings might be the Federation's solution to defeating the swarm if they could for instance "hack" the Swarm's hive mind.
This was an intresting chapter.
Congratulation to Coldfire and Xanth.
I hope the Swarm can be stopped in time
There are breeds of dogs that are hard to take serious so I can see Captain Spain's issue
8445834 I wonder if the swarm isn't some how changlings like CHRYSALIS.
Damn, this chapter has some serious mood whiplash going on.
"Coffee's ready!"
8446158
"And what about my toasts?"
8446158
I have not found a ship yet that does not run on coffee!
Holy smokies.
8446158
How could I have forgotten that!
Where's Neal Foster when you need him?
Something tells me the Cosmic Lotus isn't going to make it all the way to it's destination without being detected now. Which is all to the good, since we definitely don't want anything to happen to Chakona before they even meet up and can offer help.
Oh! Crap!
Hoping that the Federation can at least slow down the Swarm some ... still, a Bug War is a nasty thing, and this certainly looks like a Bug War.
8446506
He's probably all the way at the other end of Federation space at his personal colony, off Mary Sue-ing it up. Don't get me wrong, I like the Folly stories. But Neal is the Mary Sueiest Mary Sue since Mary came to Sue Town.
8446598
True, but if anyone could come up with an effective defense it's him. And he does have flaws, just not very noticeable.
Let me guess the unknown plasma is in fact some form of a thaumic energy. If thats the case, good thing a vessel whose crew understands this new energy is heading towards federation space.
Spits out his soda rereading the ending of the chapter. Oh shit the chakat homeworld is next!
First of all YAY! Firedrop and the Katapult battle cruiser got into the story. Been telling all my friends all day about it. Second, as someone once said "Something traveling at 2 kilometers per second is worth it's weight in BLAM!" Imagine something going faster. With an enimy swarming there is a type of munition that is very effective if you can make as they say in the "honor harrington series" a wall of battle. Mass drivers and smaller rail turrets could use good old fashion "canister rounds" it makes artillery into giant shotguns. And smaller shot is more likely to burn up in atmosphere then large rounds. Course it just could be the love of a good old broad side firing of all guns.
Oh, the contrast of happy times aboard the Lotus with a positive outlook to the future against the dire situation the morphs find themselves in against the Swarm.
Quite the juxtaposition, but it's still working well. The Lotus is in for a terrible eye-opener once they arrive.
So, the enemy was aptly named indeed. Kinda reminded me of the Tyranids (or Zerg, who are based on the Tyranids), except that their ships didn't seem to be organic in nature.
Even bad news are news, so at least some knowledge has been gleamed from the encounter. And that's only the start - it's almost like the changelings with power-mad Chrysalis, only far, far, FAR worse.
Also, Skyborn is ADORABLE! I audibly aww'd when I saw that picture. That image is squee-inducing.
8447155
It doesn't hurt that one of his go-tos, (toss a fast rock at it), happens to match with the swarm's weak points.
Although, were he to be brought in it probably wouldn't be to confront the swarm directly but to deploy KKV minefields, (space mines would almost always be of the 'captive torpedo' type), in systems they are likely to visit.
8447280
It's actually 3 km/s for the first law of space combat, (you may be remembering the 'two miles a second' or the original formulation).
Well, if no one else is going to link to it, I will....
8448070
his baby Zulu's defiantly
8448199 I think you mean "definitely".
If I had a dollar for everyone who wrote "defiantly" when they meant "definitely", I could afford a few more commissions!
"Nest"
.. Yep, here we go
Why do I get a feeling the crew of our beloved Lotus is going to play vital roles in, resolving this menace?
Also; "Let's toss radioactive junk at them!" Best rubbish strategy ever!
8447678
That's a most apt describtion
No... don't let the bugs get to Chakona. With all this setup, and the knowledge of narrative tropes and universal crossovers (and probably some law of Trek episodes about getting the solution to a major problem half way through the episode, or part way through the second part of a two-parter), the mysterious energy is probably magic/thaumic like people are suspecting, and because the ship is saturated with thaumic energies, it's probably gonna be assumed to be a swarm ship, neutralized, the Star Fleet and Star Corps are gonna go "shoot, we're sorry" and the ponies are gonna get all Friendship on them, and help them discover the swarm's using magic weapons, so they can help with stopping them, and save the homeworld of the Chakitties from bugification...
... Valhalla is probably gonna visit Space Odin though, gotta keep the drama and tension going.
I'm guessing the existance of Skyborn will be a point in their favor before communications are fully established. If there's an initial misunderstanding leading to some hostilities, even chakat empathy might not really verify friendliness at first, at least not until some translation and dialogue gets going.
Which leads to another interesting question. Can chakats even feel changeling emotions? Yes, they're both empathic species, but changelings eat emotions... What will that do to chakat senses?
very interesting chapter indeed! i still can't shake the feeling that the swarms are changelings. would be quite strange.
also. Skyborn. squeee
he's such a cute little thing. x3
I bet the swarm are changelings. Xd
Image links in this chapter appear broken.
10632395
The server is down at the moment. Out of my control, unfortunately.
About all of the image links in all of the chapters are still broken.
10942352
Server is down... again. Switched the URL to another server.