Ivan Kal - Out of the Ashes

“The humans have opened fire with Tarsha’ka weapons Dakar.” One of the bridge crew said. Vit’r’an looked at the status of his ships, seeing that there was no damage. The human Tarsha’ka were not powerful enough damage his ship’s hull. Now finally convinced that human ships posed no threat to his ship, Vit’r’an focused all his skills on a plan to capture a human ship. Preferably he would need to disable one, without destroying it. Which definitely meant destroying its drives.

“Should we return fire Dakar?” Another of his crew asked. Vit’r’an though about it for a moment. The Blood Claw had weapons that could reach the human fleet, but that would mean switching to the war mode, and he didn’t want to scare them off. If they started running away, he would need to hunt them across the system. And he didn’t want to bother with that.

“No, let them get a bit closer.” Vit’r’an said. He showed his teeth. He planned on destroying this human fleet utterly for the insult he was given by the human female. And then when he returned to Earth he would kill half of their population for failing to tell them that the human race had colonies. Maybe he would first learn the details about how that came to be. But then, he would make them pay.

“Our weapons have no effect Ship Master!” The Sensor Handler called out.

Andros watched the holo as the information came back. The Ra’a’zani ship was not even bothering to roll and spread out the heat of lasers.

“Keep at it!” Andros ordered. Perhaps if they keep at they might inflict some damage. The Ra’a’zani ship kept coming not concerned about the Second Fleet. Andros got a sick feeling in his stomach. He glanced at Johanna, who was busy reading the information on her c-board and formulating new orders. Then his own board got new orders.

“Stop firing lasers. Lock missiles!” Andros ordered.

His Weapons Handler started sending out orders to the missile firing teams throughout the ship. “Missiles locked!” Weapons Handler yelled out.

Andros saw an order come to his board, All ships fire.

“Fire missiles!” Andros ordered. A moment later the holo was filled with new signatures. Hundreds of missiles were on their way towards the Ra’a’zani ship.

Vit’r’an saw the hundreds of Pasha’ka speeding towards his ship. For a moment he was worried, but then one of his Taskmasters yelled out, “The Pasha’ka have no defenses against the Srasah’uk!”

Vit’r’an pulled back his lips showing his teeth in a Ra’a’zani smile, the human ships were firing such primitive weapons at his ship that he was almost tempted to maneuver his ship around their fleet in circle letting them try all of their arsenal, just to show them how futile it was. “Start scanning their Pasha’ka frequencies.” Vit’r’an said. He waited as the human Pasha’ka passed the half-way point between his and their ships. A Taskmaster let Vit’r’an know that they had acquired the frequencies of all the human Pasha’ka. But Vit’r’an waited some more, letting the Pasha’ka draw a bit closer to his ship. Then when he thought that letting them any closer was a risk for his ship he called out, “Engage the Srasah’uk!” Vit’r’an ordered. And within moments, all of the human Pasha’ka exploded at the same time.

Johanna watched as the missiles her fleet fired drew closer and closer with no response from the Ra’a’zani ship. The closer they came the more she felt like something was wrong. And then she watched as the every missile on her holo disappeared.

“Turiel! What happened?” She called out to the Ai.

“All the missiles exploded Fleet Commander.” Turiel said.

“Why? Was there a malfunction?” Johanna asked, although she already knew that it wasn’t.

“I detected no malfunction. The reason for the explosions is unknown.” Turiel said, and Johanna’s heart stopped for a moment. She reached over and started forming new orders.

“Turiel, program the missiles to engage their second stage early. At the half way mark.”

“Yes Fleet Commander.” Turiel responded.

Vit’r’an watched as the human ships started firing even more Pasha’ka. In a short time thousands of Pasha’ka were again on their way towards the Blood Claw. Vit’r’an ordered his Taskmasters to lock on to the Pasha’ka frequencies again. He followed the Pasha’ka tracks on his terminal, and then they reached the half way mark. Suddenly the number of the Pasha’ka increased, new tracks started appearing on his terminal.

“We lost the locks! Whatever they have just done changed the frequencies!” A Taskmaster yelled out panicky. Vit’r’an felt a moment of panic himself. The number of Pasha’ka was great, and even his ship might be destroyed under the onslaught of so many.

“Lock on the new frequencies!” Dakar Vit’r’an ordered. He watched as his crew worked frantically to get them all, but he saw that they wouldn’t make it in time. When the Pasha’ka reached the same distance as the last time, Vit’r’an yelled out,

“Engage the Srasah’uk!” He ordered. His crew didn’t manage to lock on them all, but Vit’r’an had no choice but to hope that the explosions of the others would take out those not locked on, he had no time to switch his ship to its war mode, and engage the other defenses. And so he prayed that if any passed through, they wouldn’t be able to deal enough damage to his ship.

In space more than nine thousand human missiles sped towards their target. Then suddenly more than ninety percent of them exploded, taking with them most of the others. But four missiles, by some miracle managed to survive. They reached their target, and impacted with the front of the Ra’a’zani ship. Four explosions hit the Ra’a’zani ship in quick succession. But the ship kept going. Its hull suffering minor damage.

“Minor damage Dakar. The hull integrity for the forward section has fallen to eighty three percent. But it should still be sufficient to prevent human Tarsha’ka weapons from inflicting any damage.” A Taskmaster said.

Vit’r’an felt his anger rise to the surface. The slaves had managed to hit his ship! Their primitive weapons damaged his hull! He would not allow that again. He didn’t know if they had more of those multiplying Pasha’ka but Vit’r’an wouldn’t be caught off guard again.

“Engage the war mode.” Vit’r’an ordered. “And get us above their formation, half speed. I’m done playing.” Vit’r’an growled looking at the human fleet.

Johanna looked at the Ra’a’zani ship after her failed attack. They managed to hit the Ra’a’zani ship, but whether their defenses were overwhelmed or four of her missiles simply got lucky, it didn’t matter. Her ships didn’t have enough missiles for another salvo of the same size. She debated using torpedoes, but if Ra’a’zani could destroy them from afar it would serve little point. The only thing she had left was her ships kinetic weapons. And if she fired them at this distance they were unlikely to hit her target. That was her last chance. The Ra’a’zani ship was much more formidable than they could have ever imagined. The ease with which it shrugged off their attacks was freighting.

Johanna debated turning around and running away, but she knew that she couldn’t. The attacks on Earth had already begun. If she ran away, there was nothing that could save Earth from the wrath of the Ra’a’zani. No, they needed to fight. Johanna studied the Ra’a’zani ship’s hull, it was certainly damaged. Her missiles did hurt them, although it seemed like it was minor damage. Perhaps if she could close the distance, and get a torpedo to hit… Then Johanna saw a change take over the Ra’a’zani ship. She watched as its hull plates moved in a wave like motion, overlapping, moving around, and opening. Johanna watched as platforms rose up from within the Ra’a’zani ship. The platforms held things that looked like her ships turrets, only wider and shorter. When the transformation finished the hull plates moved back closing over the platforms, so that only the turrets were visible. The shimmering that they saw when their lasers hit the hull now appeared over the weapons.