POV Orsu

“CAPTIAN ORSU! We’re picking up multiple incoming objects. They don’t seem to be spacecraft and they're moving to fast for us to effectively intercept them they’ll be impacting the planet in five. I repeat fifteen large objects incoming to crash into the planet.”

“Understood Mivro. What is their threat level to us?”

“Undetermined Captain. The planet's atmosphere won’t burn them in their entry but they are coming in at an angle were the impacts shouldn’t be devastating to the environment or the crew on the planet.”

“How likely is this not just a few stray asteroids but some form of enemy attack?”

“Unlikely captain. They are too spread out to be a direct and organized attack pattern. Unless some are acting as decoys to hide the real threat. But if they are then the enemy has more resources then we thought and should have been able to wipe us out before we even made our first insertion on the planet.”

“Copy that. Set the ship into the Alert states and keep observing the debris and report back as the situation changes.”

“Rodger Captain.”

I don’t like this. We haven’t had such a large asteroid strike since we started working here and now we have one once we finish. I’m not buying it.

The real question to ask is what is their goal in all of this. Whoever they are they clearly have patience and resources. They also value this developing planet as they are trying there best to not damage it too much to destroy the current atmosphere and climates. They also allowed us to do our job unmolested meaning that they themselves value the work we’re doing. Either because they can’t do it or because they are too lazy to do it themselves. We also haven’t been broadcasting our status to anyone or even sending it back to the ship as far as anyone off the planet should know we aren’t even close to being done.

And yet they know that we’ve completed our job and are on their way to take the control base…

Or I’m overthinking. But the feeling in my gut is telling me that this isn’t right, that everything is going to go down soon.

I need Mivro, Vengella, and Tarux on high alert. I want some warning air support if I can get it.

“Mivro do you copy?”

“Mivro? Do you copy? Over!”

“MIVRO!!!”

Oh crap.

“Fizz set the base to defense grid twenty-eight. No complaints, get to it!”

This is not going to be easy…

Tarux you better be able to pull me out of this.

Mivro POV

“Copy that. Keep observing them and report back as the situation changes.”

“Rodger Captain.”

Floating out here observing the situation from above has been pretty tame. But with Captain Orsu’s warning to stay on alert I should probably get ready just in case something starts to get rough.

I flip the ships intercom system as I watch the readouts from the scanners on the situation with the incoming debris.

“All hand report to stations we are going into alert states on Captains Orders!”

I then flip the intercom off and wait for Vengella to get up here and man the scanners so that I can focus on flying if the situation becomes hot. Tarux will man the turrets from the control station and observe the situation from there and in the case of a boarding repel them from the ship.

I trust the Captian his gut instinct has to lead to us getting out of many dire situations relatively unscathed. I trust him with my life and he trust’s me with not only his own but the entire crews by allowing me to piolet this ship. Most captains wouldn’t give up the piolets seat to another as when a captain does that they run the risk of their ship flying away without them. Ships have hard DNA and mana signature locks so that only a select few can operate the most imperative parts of a spacecraft. The more important craft require multiple confirmations on these locks to even function let alone operate properly. So by giving me the otherization to turn on and operate this spaceship allows me to take it anywhere legally and with little to no restraints.

I could steal this ship and rename it in a shady port then sell it for all it’s worth.

But I won’t because that’s not who I am and that would be betraying a lot of people I’ve come to care for.

“Vengella reporting for duty!”

“Man the scanners and watch the incoming debris for oddities. Captain’s gat a feeling that somethings going to go wrong.”

“Understood. Kalna open Navigation and Observation terminals under access code Freedom, Vortex, Nine, One, Charles, Bata, Seven, Three, Nine.”

“Authorization code confirmed... Voice recognition match… Please press a hand against console station two…” Kalna chirps out after Vengella’s access code is given out.

Vengella wastes no time and places her hand on the access panel at station two. She shows none of her playful or annoying personality in the situation as if it was never there, to begin with. She is a true professional in that matter, as soon as she is needed to perform her duties she drops everything and gives it her all in all seriousness. I wish I could do that, but I guess a being multiple centuries old has lots of experience with handling hard situations. I just wish she didn’t act like a child when she wasn’t serious.

“Miv, I count seventeen objects in the cluster moving towards the planet.”

“Vengella did you just say seventeen? I counted fifteen when I talked with the captain? Check the data recorded at that report and determine what’s changed.”

I can’t have miss counted that number, it is too small of a number to have made a mistake in. I counted twice when I reported to the captain about the situation. I don’t like this…

“Tarux do you copy?”

“Load and clear Miv.”

“Are you on the turrets yet? I need them up and running in case we run into trouble.”

“Miv you don’t check with me on this unless you think I will need them… There charging and will be hot in a moment… but I advise from the data I’m looking at that you should quickly go to the gun rack and grab a weapon for yourself and Ven, and if possible get Kalna to lock down the bridge immediately in the case of a hull breach.”

“Tarux why are you advising such measures? They seem drastic for this particular situation…”

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I don’t like this tone of voice coming from him or the fact that he’s so worried about what’s about to happen.

“Miv, Update on the observations we have twenty-one incoming objects. It appears that two objects on the edges of there formation divided evenly into four parts.”

“Vengella are you sure?”

“Absolutely. Another one just split in half it looked like it was going to miss the planets gravitational pull when I was determining their courses to the planet.”

“I understand Vengella. Keep me updated on any major changes in the situation.”

I don’t like this one bit. I need to contact captain Orsu about how this situation has developed.

“Miv coms are being jammed. Get some armaments or you’re not going to make it through this encounter.”

“Tarux stop acting like you know what’s going on an…”

“WE’RE BEING PROBED BY A GREM HIVE! SHUT IT, GET A GUN AND PREPARE FOR THE WORST. IF YOU LIVE THROUGH THIS I’LL TELL YOU WHY I KNOW THIS. Tarux out!”

“Tarux what are you saying?”

“Miv drop it! You can’t worry about him right now if what he said is true. We both need you here right now not somewhere else. So do as he asked or said and focus on the fight of your life.”

“Vengella what… no, I understand. Keep me updated on the debris and try and contact the captain if you can.”

I want to know what’s going on so bad to know why they're both so focused and tense right now. But those thoughts are better saved for another time, Vengella was right I need to focus on the here and now.

I get to the weapon rack and grab a pair of plasma throwers. I strap them into the holsters on my thighs before grabbing a mana-burst for Vengella. I lock up the weapon wrack and press a button that retracts it into the floor before heading back to my station.

I sit back down into the cockpit of Serenity and pull up the forward display.

“Mivro, we have not been able to reach the captain nor received any messages from him. The enemy’s numbers now equal thirty-six. Twenty-eight of them are split fourths of the original fifteen the other eight are on a crash course with the planet. I have calculated that they will crash in the same general quadrant of the planet the planet that the captain is in. The other Twenty-eight are spread out among the stars and area surrounding the planet. This data is assuming there is little to no propulsion systems. We should expect the twenty-eight split craft to attack us and potentially split apart even more.”

“Understood Vengella. Focus more on the potential threat to us and the potentially hostile actions made against us.”

I see what they're saying though this is a threat that we can’t take lightly if these are all real spacecraft then we’ll be in trouble when they start their attack runs. I warm up the burst thrusters and begin to maneuver our ship away from the planet and to a more optimal position a bit away from the potential enemy. If the enemy really does plan on attacking then they are required fly to us and make an obvious deviation from there possible flight path revealing the threat to us.

After moving I sit and watch the crafts as they fly closer and closer to the planet. They get closer and closer until twenty-four of the split craft break off of the main body in a uniform sharp snap turn pointing at us. As the execute the maneuver much of the debris is shaken off revealing long sharp angular spacecraft with radial structural designs. The front of the craft is tipped with a triangular pyramid. The side shows that the craft looks to be made up of many interlocking pyramids that shift around as the ship moves towards its target like an eel in water.

“Mav all weapons are hot and ready to fire your missile tubs are loaded with swarms and the front main tri-cannons are fully charged with mana. Our power supply is not a problem in this fight, overheating the systems and pushing the ship too hard are we don’t have a mechanic on hand, Fizz’s bots will fix what they can but they will do so in the order the problem appear instead of the order you might want. Keep focused and trust us to do our jobs.”

“Got it Tarux, thanks.”

“May glory be found in the existence after this and may we fight aside our chosen kin under the banners of our choices.”

“To the glory to come Tarux.”

“To the glory to come Vengella.”

What…

I never thought Tarux or Vengella to be religious people. And even if they were I doubt they would be of the same faith.

Now's not the time. I’ll add it to the growing pile of questions that I need to ask them after we make it through this.

Now is the time to fight.

“All hands, we’re moving in.”

I think I hear them reply with their understanding but I don’t focus on it.

I push us towards at a quick pace as I line up my first shot on one of their ships. I hold off on taking the shot as we draw closer to the enemy’s fleet. They don’t waver or change course when I charge them they must think this will be an easy fight then. Too bad Tarux and Fizz only agreed with each other when they were working on this ship.

More weapons would mean greater chances of survivability and with a variety of weapons, we can face a large range of problems. Outside the weapon systems, I have control over Tarux controls four missile tubes, three flak turrets, two double-barreled mana launchers, along with loads of small automated point defense systems for any incoming attacks.

I launch my first shot out of my mains before rolling the ship on its port side seventy-two degrees. I launch my missile pods towards a grouping of nine ships before dropping the nose of the ship down thirty-six degrees and shooting out another burst from the main as I push the ship forward after the shot been made.

The enemy is on us after the missiles launch. The first shot from the primary guns missed since the enemy had time to maneuver out of the way. But the second shot hits the side of one of them as it flew by to get behind us. That ship is split into its front and back and out of commission as I speed through the hole I made in it. I hear explosions behind me as the swarm missiles detonate around the enemy.

I see streaks of mana and matter fly around the ship. I then swing the ship on its starboard side and match the speed of one of their craft. I see on our readout that it’s been crippled on our side from Tarux. I then pull back while swinging to the port side sending me over the crippled ship and back towards my enemies. I unload another shot from my primaries into the swarming mass. I don’t know if it hits as I feel the ship shake from the force of the maneuver I pulled before I send the ship into a counter-clockwise corkscrew.

“Mav collision course coming in from fifty and a hundred and nine.”

“Copy adjusting!”

I start to pull out of the corkscrew and angle our ship to pull out along a curved path passing the incoming spacecraft. As we do I shoot a leading shot from the primary gun just before we pass. I see an enemy ship start to swing around me in an attempt to get behind me. I can’t focus on that though as I have to keep us moving in unpredictable ways so that we don’t get torn to shreds. I’ll trust Tarux with them and keep pushing on.

I pull our ship up and into a tight loop around some debris. As we crest over the debris on the loop I shoot another burst out from our primaries before completing the loop and getting behind the enemies that were on my tail. I switch some smart fire missiles into my missile tubes and shoot at the backs of those that were perusing me with my primaries. I wait for the missile tubes to finish loading then launch them as well as I turn twelve degrees starboard to line up a leading shot with my primary. I take the shot and watch it catch the enemy crafts engines crippling its maneuverability. I begin to dip the craft at a slow twenty-two degrees before I feel the ship shake from a direct hit on our ship.

“Engine three has been disabled maneuverability has been cut down by five percent. Worker drones will begin repairs after the aft shielding array is repaired and redeployed.”

“Copy, adjusting plans so we can still maneuver.”

With an engine on the port side down were going to be limited in the maneuvers we can do effectively. I don’t want to repeat my maneuvers often or they’ll pick them up and take us down that much faster.

I push the ship and swing it to its port side while rolling the ship eighty-seven degrees. I then push the ship forward while I raise its nose towards another enemy. The enemy ship pushes up as well and we begin to fly in a rolling scissors maneuver with each other while trying to outmaneuver each other.

“We’re getting surrounded Mivro. “

I faintly hear Tarux over the coms.

“Copy!”

I keep at it and pull off of to get a shot off when our paths cross. I take the shot with the primaries and land it taking another ship out of commission. I then see flairs shooting out around us and see missiles detonate around the ship. I try and roll the ship ninety-two degrees starboard but feel it getting hit and spins off of the course I was trying to set.

“Engines six, eight, and ten are out of commission and need major repairs. We have lost twenty percent maneuverability with those engines lost. But the aft shield array has been repaired and is being redeployed. But we also have a hull breach in the starboard side closet to the aft of our ship.”

“Copy…”

Stupid you can’t see everything you have to listen to the crew. I should have listened. I should have done better.

“Mivro pull your senses out of your head and keep us alive and fighting. You can beat yourself down once you live through this, ya daft girl!”

Tarux is right. I can’t do this now.

I try and counter our ship out of its uncontrolled spinning while Tarux works on taking out the incoming bombardment of missiles that the enemy keeps throwing at us. We get hit again and again before I can right the ship and regain control but by that time we’ve lost our five main engines and only have two of the smaller engines on the port side in a functional state.

I see only nine of the original twenty-four ships approach us before three of them move forward and ram into us.

“Mivro grab your gun. We have three hull breaches from that ramming. And those breaches are full of Grem who’s only thought is to kill us…”