Alien copulations are to be avoided. They breed bio-chemical co-dependence that is detrimental to efficiency.
Such interactions posses a clear threat to shipboard cohesion and can compromise Hegemony security. Any violation of this procedure should be immediately noted on form T-09384 and filed with the nearest garrison; any offenders should be immediately disciplined and stripped of position.
BC-001 - En-route to Sentinel
"Taine!" Sephradon paced through the holographic map, her white silk dress rustling as she walked, her face twisted in thought, "It's always Darien Taine."
"Mistress," The Fleet Marshal turned from his monitors, "Highlord Taine is the Empire's most capable commander, and with the death of General Iver observed on intercepted Imperial news feeds, the likelihood of Highlord Taine's involvement in the battle of Sentinel is..."
"I am aware of the statistical probability," Sephradon snapped, looking up at the Amsus officer, "I want to know why he isn't dead yet."
"We have not had the fortune of being able to catch him." The Inquisitor on the bridge stepped forward. "Every time we successfully corner Highlord Taine, he has found a way to elude us, doing significant damage in the process. We devoted a great deal of resources during our attempts, and each time we have emerged from the encounter with near total losses." He stepped down into the holographic field. "It is proving more costly to pursue Highlord Taine than to simply ignore him..."
"Ignore him?" Sephradon waved her hand at the image of the destroyed command carrier's shattered hulk. "Do you see the cost of ignoring Taine?" She asked insistently, "There is only one way to guarantee our victory at Sentinel; that is to ensure that Taine dies," she pursed her lips, studying the system around her, "And the best way to capture a man is to set a trap for him..." Her eyes flicked over her fleet, turning first one way, then the other, sweeping her skirts up as she crossed the image to examine the field around her. "They shall attempt this brazen attack tactic again," she surmised, looking up at the Fleet Marshall, "it worked too well for them the last time for them not to. How many AWACs do we have remaining?"
"Four, Mistress." The Fleet Marshall replied.
"Array them ahead of the fleet and give them a heavy fighter screen. Take all of our missile destroyers and position them along our flanks..." She looked up, "Order them to disable their combat Radars and use streak fire, no electrical guidance."
"Mistress, that will expend a lot of ammunition..." The Fleet Marshal protested.
"The advantage will be that Taine's ships will have to charge through waves of missile fire to reach our heavy cruisers. I want the light cruisers and Raptors to hold, no matter what happens they are to remain in stealth mode, they are not to engage the main body of the fleet, am I clear?"
"Perfectly, Mistress." The Fleet Marshal intoned.
"Excellent. Taine is about to learn that there is more to the Amsus war machine than brute force." She picked up the hem of her dress and glided through the hologram, climbing to her delicate chair, her one vanity. Sitting on the throne, she waited. They would initiate their jump in a few short hours, and with it would come the second of Taine's raids.
* * *
Alessandro stood in the doorway to Katz's cabin, in a simple pair of boxers and his Henley undershirt, the buttons undone and the sleeves pulled up to just below his elbows. Katz sat a moment, watching the thin Italian man standing in the doorway to his cabin, slurping on a bowl of instant noodles, amusement in his eyes, watching Katz stare at him.
Katz swallowed and looked back at the computer on the Raptor's desk. He'd just been updating R-403's log book, part of Darien's ritual; it seemed appropriate that Katz should do the same. He hadn't expected the knock at the door, and he certainly hadn't expected the half-dressed lieutenant.
His eyes drifted down to the bare legs poking out of dark green boxer shorts, and he struggled to look back up at Alessandro's eyes. "Y-yes?" He coughed, intensely aware that he was fighting the urge not to look. He wasn't supposed to look, not yet, his mind span.
"Che? Ah! Scuzi," Alessandro gestured past Katz towards the small bathroom attached to the Captain's cabin, "Mine is broken, I use yours, sė?"
Katz nodded his head, swallowing as Alessandro padded into the cabin, setting his bowl of ramen noodles down and picking up Katz's coffee mug, sniffing it before shrugging and taking a drink. "What are you doing, Ragazzo?"
"I... err..." Katz shook his head, "Can you put some pants on?" He asked, blushing bright red, at one point he wouldn't have been so nervous, but... there was something that unsettled his confidence when it came to Alessandro. Maybe it was because the boot was on the other foot, Katz was used to being the seducer, the man with the lines... His customers had preferred that... Or was it that it came so suddenly after... He didn't want to dwell on it. It would be so easy to just loose himself in some easy comfort and forget.
"No," Alessandro replied, sitting down on the end of Katz's bed, blushing a little as his smile curled in amusement. "You like to look, I like being looked at." He sipped Katz's coffee again. "You make bad coffee Ragazzo," he said, wrinkling his nose and shaking his head at the foul liquid.
Katz turned in his chair, leaning on the arm as he blew out a reluctant sigh. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't intensely attracted to Alessandro, but there were so many mitigating circumstances that made doing anything such a bad idea. They couldn't get involved, even if they did what could come out of it? Nothing but more loss, that was the way everything worked, pain and loss handed out and he was supposed to take it.... He didn't want to just take it, he wanted to just be him again.
His eyes slid over Alessandro's thin frame, the muscle definition beneath the Henley, the dark hair on his arms and legs and poking out a bit where the undone collar of the shirt hung to the right. It was just enough to perk Katz's curiosity, a natural desire to see more.
Alessandro grinned back at him. "You be amazed, eh?" he said, smiling, lifting Katz's coffee mug and draining it, "I go shower, then I show you, Ragazzo, how to make Buon Coffee!" he kissed the tip of his finger and thumb dramatically.
He got up and stripped off his shirt, tossing it at the young Captain, bounding into the shower, leaving Katz to blow out a ragged sigh, resting against the headrest of the chair and looking up and out of the window at the stars. If it wasn't bad enough that Alessandro knew every detail of Katz's life, and seemed hell bent on being... what... a distraction to him? Was it that Alessandro could sense that Katz was in need of someone, any one, to just loose himself in and not dwell on the war and what it was doing to him?
The sound of water pattering in the shower caused Katz's stomach to tighten, thoughts creeping into his mind of water sliding off of skin. Memories of intense moments... Katz rubbed his hands down his face. He needed to get a grip, and not in that fun kind of way... He coughed, turning back to his log entry and trying to return to work.
He looked up again as Alessandro emerged from the shower, towel tied tightly around his waist, the other towel scrubbing his mid-length black hair that he usually wore messy. It hung damply across his face as he looked down at Katz, moving forward, his hand reaching out, as Katz turned, his breath tight, seeing the young man drawing close, his lips so near...
Alessandro drew back with his Henley. Slipping it on over his head, he snickered at Katz's reaction. "Il mio Amico, eh?" he said, adjusting his hair, "You are my friend, yes?"
"I...err," Katz shook his head.
"I think you are the one who needs the shower, cold eh?" he glanced down and beamed, "You are not the kind of man to blush easily Ragazzo, I can see that I have to try harder."
Katz really needed a cold shower. He found himself nodding by rote.
"Prepare to be dazzled," Alessandro said, bouncing in amusement heading for the door, "But first, coffee." He turned back, "And for you, Ragazzo," he made a loop with his thumb and forefinger and moved his hand up and down, winking before he slipped out of the cabin.
Katz slid down in his chair, shaking his head and blowing out a long sigh. Good advice, he figured, getting up to finally take that long shower.
* * *
"The Amsus fleet just jumped to the Zyazoil system," Ramsey's TNC officer reported, standing back by a plotting board and making the appropriate notes with her grease pencil, highlighting the Amsus fleet strength and numbers as it was relayed to her from the small listening probe transmitting over FTL relay from the system. "Probe reports that a group of Amsus cruisers are breaking formation. They appear to be attempting to slip away in the confusion of the jump manoeuvre."
"That would be their hunting party," Ramsey replied, looking up from his holographic displays, checking the readiness status of his fleet, "They're hoping that we are going to try the same manoeuvre again."
"Colonel?" The Major looked puzzled.
"See the distribution of their missile destroyers, along their flanks? They are attempting to create an engagement zone that they control. But they are doing so at the expense of protecting the rest of their armada. We must convince their commander that we do indeed plan to make the same attack run targeting their command carriers, however..." he studied the Amsus fleet carefully, stroking his beard, "This time we will attack from their rear flank. Our ships will make an attack run along the Amsus fleet here..." he gestured showing the approach vector he intended to take. "Once all ships are in position, we will engage our jump drives and leap away... the results of small ships jumping from amidst so many... larger vessels should be catastrophic for our opponent."
"That is going to put R-403 in imminent danger," The TNC observed.
"I know the danger," Ramsey rumbled, "My Nephew is on that ship... I understand the cost all too well, but we are house Kardiac, we do what must be done, for the Empire. And at times that means we must make sacrifices." He clenched his fist tightly as he set it down on the arm of his chair. "Besides, you saw the Katz-boy fly the last time, Major. He will survive."
"Understood, Colonel."
* * *
Katz tried not to think about the sheer number of Amsus ships, the Raptor sitting in the lee of Zyazoil III, a brilliant blue-green orb of prehistoric vegetation. There was no settlement down on the planet, not yet; a few expeditions had mapped the world for potential colonization, but the Hegemony tightly controlled Human expansion, and the world held little exploitable strategic or geological gain for them.
The planet, like the Raptor hiding in the magnetic pole, was laying in wait.
It was his second look at the mass of vessels steaming towards their destiny at Sentinel, one jump out of the Haligonian system. Time was running out for Ramsey to delay the Armada, and soon they were going to begin to get desperate.
He watched them. The main body of the fleet would pass close to the planet, recharging their jump drives to make the next leg of their journey. The enemy, a hammer to beat down the human revolution once and for all.
He'd show them a hammer.
He examined the theatre of battle. Zyazoil was a simple system of three worlds. Zyazoil III was the furthest out. Its moon was an arid little dust ball with a thin atmosphere. The other planets were unremarkable: a world that was entirely inhospitable, with a corrosive atmosphere that would wreak havoc on the Raptor's systems, and a scorched barren rock too close to the brilliant white star to be of any use. It seemed that the only place to hide was where he was; it was going to make running a pain, but he was prepared to take any pursuit on a merry chase through Zyazoil III's atmosphere.
He looked back behind him. Alessandro was leaning over his boards taking notes, sparing a moment to look up at Katz and offer a reassuring smile, seeing the same thing that Katz was seeing. It was going to be tough getting more than one attack run in, but they had little choice.
Katz reached out for the throttle, squinting out of the cockpit window and gauging the right moment, pushing forward slowly, easing the warship up to speed, accelerating on a mad dash down towards the Amsus fleet at maximum acceleration. Their sensor systems were banging out in an attempt to bait the Hedgehogs into turning on their Radars. Katz was painfully aware that he was essentially playing chicken with the entire Amsus war fleet; he prayed they took the bait.
"Sweeping RADAR," Alessandro called, sliding down his console to set to work, "Twelve o'clock."
The RADAR Threat Display turned a bright yellow before sliding firmly into the red. An unnerving whine filled the cockpit as the RADAR Warning Receiver informed them that the whole damn Amsus fleet was locking on to him. The tracking tone every fighter pilot learned to be terrified of began to warble.
"Ragazzo, I have it." Alessandro looked up, and Katz glanced up at the instant the small circle in the centre of the Raptor's HUD turned into a diamond and centred itself over the Hedgehog's location. A second, third and fourth lit up as well. The warble changed pitch, indicating that each of the SAK-IIs had locked onto the source of the powerful RADAR. The range-to-target information appeared on the right side of the HUD and began counting down rapidly in kilometre increments.
Katz's hands tensed on the stick, anticipating the 'In Range' cue. The moment the sound broke, the gunner would open fire, and he would break off his attack run...
The tone changed. The missiles were away, and the Raptor broke to port, curving away from the furious Predators sweeping after him, burning heavily on their afterburners trying to close the distance.
* * *
Sephradon smiled. She had him.
She stretched out with her senses, standing amidst her holographic battle, reaching out a hand to hover just below the Amsus Raptor, feeling it. A powerful machine, like a bird of prey flying free. And him, like a hunter, at its controls.
She shifted, feeling the other people in the ship. Moving first to the gunner, she closed her mind like a steel trap as she closed her hand over the ship's image.
* * *
The Marine Corporal jerked in the seat beside Katz. A violent convulsion racked her body and her hands slid off of the controls to the plasma cannons and she began to thrash wildly.
Katz turned to her, his eyes wide. "Corporal? Corporal!" He looked back at Alessandro who was already unbuckling his harnesses, clambering forward to restrain her, pressing her shoulders back against the chair.
The Raptor shook, the thundering of auto cannon fire hitting the starboard wing, and Katz had no choice but to return his attention to the desperate run. He tenaciously threw the Raptor into a steep dive, sending it spiralling down towards the surface of Zyazoil III, the ship's engines whining as his fingers flew, switching the engines from the ion drive over to the jets, adjusting the trim of the wings as he pulled back on the nose, the Raptor curving out of its dive and whisking over the jungle canopy, using its manoeuvrability to his advantage. Even so, in a dogfight, the Amsus Predators on his tail held all the cards.
Beside him, the Corporal drew in a sharp, shuddering breath, her eyes pleading with Alessandro before they rolled up into her head, gurgling as she slumped. A quick shake of Alessandro's head said that there had been nothing he could have done.
The auto-masers fired a burst at a pair of Predators that streaked past the Raptor then broke away to the left. Katz's vision narrowed and turned grey as the blood drained from his head. He grunted against the G-forces as they mashed him back into his seat, a series of loud thumps filling him with dread. The Raptor shuddered as he inverted his roll and yanked the stick back, expecting the ship to explode at any moment.
* * *
Sephradon smiled, ignoring the explosions as three of her four remaining Hedgehogs died under the Raptor's initial attack. She switched her concentration to the next gunner on the ship killing him before moving on to the last gunner, enjoying making Taine wait for his death.
She revelled in the death, it had been her purpose, the reason she had been created. So many memories of the torment at the hands of UN doctors and black operations specialists using her talents to kill on command. The electrodes, the chair... the white hospital gowns.
Her muscles quivered at the memories of the pain, lashing out with her mind and striking down another life. There was no compassion, only the joy of knowing that she had succeeded, and by her success she had spared herself more pain.
She was a weapon, forged by human arrogance in the twighlight of the United Nations, a weapon that couldn't be satiated, nor controlled for long. And during the first generation uprising, she had relished being turned on her creators. Showing them exactly how effective their creation truly was.
She laughed, a cold tear rolling down her face as she killed again. There was only pain and revenge.
* * *
The pockmarked vaccu-formed Predator flashed past them as Katz dove the Raptor towards the trees, pulling with all the willpower he could find lurking deep inside him, praying that they didn't collide with the ground. And for the briefest moment the Raptor resisted his hand, and slowly, painfully slowly, the nose rose towards the horizon, and his vision greyed and tunnelled again, as he clenched every muscle he had against the G-LOC. Knowing that the tops of the trees were brushing the Raptor's underbelly, he strove to remain airborne. Proud to a fault, R-403 wasn't about to crash for a second time, and he levelled out above the trees.
He was vaguely aware that he could no longer hear the sound of the auto-masers, but he didn't have time to dwell on it as he jinked back and forth, trying to weave his way out of the horde of Predators that were harrying him.
A crack; it was a sharp snap that made his head snap up, looking at the spider web that spread out from the centre of the canopy, the auto cannon shell lodged in the centre of the Plexiglas. He shook, realizing that it should have killed him.
* * *
"Mistress," The Fleet Marshal turned, "The main attack force has arrived..."
Sephradon looked up from where she kneeled, her hands cupping the Raptor, and glanced back at the holographic image of her fleet. The Imperial ships appeared in a perfect double column, shrieking up from behind the Amsus cruisers. She hadn't anticipated that; with her carriers sitting located on the same flank as her missile destroyers, her rear had been exposed, and without the Raptor running interference, they could have provided valuable fire support.
She gritted her teeth in frustration, looking back at Taine's Raptor. She didn't have time... Her arrogance had stripped her of her opportunity. She nodded. "Very well, I will kill you later," she looked up, "Fleet Marshal, order our ships to engage the Imperial fleet."
* * *
Colonel Ramsey stared at the main body of the cruiser fleet, stretching like an endless mass of metal before him, the explosions from the Flak cannons beginning to light up the space ahead of them.
He found himself speaking; a low murmur as he recited a poem long forgotten on Earth, "Cannons to the left of them, Cannon to the right of them, cannon to the fore of them. Volley and thunder!"
The alarm klaxon screamed as the Prometheus Unbound streaked in low across the hull of the lead Amsus Battlecruiser, her maser cannons carving up its hull plates, and her missiles gouging great holes into its hull. Moving under full power, leading the charge of the 242nd AR Light Horse. The swarm of Predators from the Amsus command carriers rose up and tried to give chase to the Osterburg as it flew its reckless course along the Battlecruiser's hull.
A second Battlecruiser pitched around in front of the Prometheus Unbound's course, loosing a devastating volley of missiles and heavy cannon fire. The Prometheus Unbound rolled under the volley, its hull barely scraping along the tight corridor of weapons fire. It pulled downwards at the last moment as the Predators ran headlong into the full spread of missiles fired from their own comrades.
The bridge of the Prometheus Unbound was a scene from hell. Bathed in the nightmarish red of the emergency lights, the flickering orange of a fire burned on the gutted tactical console. Smoke filled the air, and the smell of ozone permeated the bridge. Somewhere behind him a series of repeater displays exploded, shattering the large plotting display of the battle, large splinters of panelling decimating the officers standing before it.
Ducking the blast, Colonel Ramsey sat upright again, a string of orders flowing from his mouth. He watched his crew moving through the rituals of their actions, trying to keep the ship together through the suicide time buying manoeuvres.
The TNC Major leaned over the ruined tactical, desperately wrestling with the target locks, keeping them trained on the massive Amsus vessels that surged like disturbed behemoths with a mouse darting amongst them... or a tiger. "There goes another one Colonel. But I can't guarantee these systems much longer."
The Colonel stood, his eyes locked on the bridge observation window. "If we lose the tactical systems we're all dead! Keep power diverted to those systems." The console beeped beside him, drawing his attention as he noted a new target on his scopes. The Amsus flagship, BC-001. "Helm..." An explosion at the helm cut him off as the young crewman there was flung like a rag doll from her chair.
He started to rise from his chair as the Major darted across the bridge and seated herself in the chair, casting a quick glance back towards him, awaiting the Colonel's orders.
"Dive us in towards the BC-001, keep us tight to its hull... it'll save us from the large ship's weapons fire, they won't risk firing on their flagship."
He re-seated himself, toggling his TAC-link and talking into the headset, calling for a medic to come to the bridge, hoping that they would hold together long enough to make the attack run.
The Major's tense voice rose over the din of the klaxons. "We won't hold up to much more sustained weapons fire."
He cast the Major a glare. "Thank you Major Lanz, just concentrate on the weapons scopes and leave the job of getting us through this mess to me."
Another spread of missiles carved their way into Prometheus Unbound's hull, tearing through the already-weakened hull and vaporizing the upper starboard engine mount. Prometheus Unbound shook violently from the blast, and throughout the ship, bulkheads buckled and strained from the impact.
The alert sirens indicated that there was a hull breach in progress, a rush of air roaring back along the ship as emergency bulkheads slammed down, sealing off the bridge.
"Get us around that ship, Major Lanz!" Ramsey's voice bellowed over the din.
The Prometheus Unbound, trailing a stream of venting gasses, dove in under the port wing of the BC-001 and shot across its hull, its weapon systems hammering the Amsus ship with concentrated blasts of fire. More Amsus Raptors fell in to pursue her mercilessly. Behind, in the Prometheus Unbound's wake, the last Osterburg crested the edge of the fleet.
"Engage jump drives!" Ramsey ordered, leaning forward on the back of the Major's seat, feeling the ship lurch heavily from more impacts as a missile slammed into the bridge of the Prometheus Unbound, sending a wave of shrapnel and flame through the exposed structure.
The Osterburgs, battered and bloodied, pitched, closing with each other as their wing mates extended their jump pods, cowlings sliding back, a flicker of crackling blue energy arcing from one to another...
* * *
"Mistress!" The Fleet Marshal announced in alarm, as the power spikes registered throughout the Amsus fleet.
Sephradon seethed. Seeing what was about to happen, she swallowed, pouring everything she had into defending her ship, straining under the titanic force she had to pull around her just to ensure its survival.
The Osterburgs engaged their drives, leaping away again, taking with them great sections of the surrounding ships, carnage reigning. Those Osterburgs unable to get away were cut to pieces by the remaining cruisers, but the damage was done.
The glowing blue energy washed away from BC-001 as Sephradon shivered and crashed to the deck, panting... "Get Taine!"
Around the flagship, a hundred cruisers listed, heavily damaged. The 242nd had struck again.