"Help us, please help us. It killed everyone in our colony, killed most of my crew. It chased through jumpspace," Vekan said, opening the com window on his own displayrs, moving the task from the shattered screens in front of an empty seat that used to be the communications station.
"You request for assistance is granted," came over the com. The voice was calm and clear and cut through the background static like the sender was just outside the hull and not twelve million miles out. "Am moving to intercept," The voice continued. "You can't scratch that thing and it's trying to force you to head home so it can follow you."
Nakteti looked at what few screens were working and saw that a ship rising out of the gas giant. The scanner was having a hard time holding onto it, the ship vanishing in a ball of fuzz or just plain disappearing from the screen. According to the ship's scanners, when it could see it, it was a dead ship, no energy output and a solid object with no hull-spaces.
"Please help us, it slaughtered our colony, killed our friends and family," Vekan said, almost sobbing.
"That's what they do," The voice said. "Now it wants you to go back home so it can follow you."
"But why?" Vekan asked as Lektat accelerated toward the stranger in a corkscrew pattern.
"So it can kill them too," The voice answered. There was no emotion beneath the calm, just certainty and eerie dead calm. "Get behind the gas giant. I'm sending you a friend. Listen to him and treat him well."
Nakteti could see the speed the new ship was putting on, already up to .25C and climbing. The terrifying ship behind them was changing course, heading for the newcomer, already up to .15C and accelerating.
Her poor Sweet could only pull a tenth of the acceleration those ships were showing and it had the newest compensaters, best drives, and most modern thrust tubes. Still, Lektat was making a good showing even with two of the engines not responding and one of the reactors offline.
Daxin, in his disaster frame body, was locked into his pilot's pod, information pouring into his brain as he pushed the throttle to 60% and set his course at an angle. He knew it would make his drive signature burn through his stealth but he didn't have a choice if he was going to give those poor souls any chance at escape.
**Fido**
//Fido goodboi! Warboi time?//
Daxin wished he still had a mouth to wipe as he stared at the massive ship in front of him and tickled Fido's petting nerve. He was close enough and he wasn't about to try to bring down the range and let that big bastard get first launch on him. He ordered the warbois to flush the missile tubes and reload.
Nakteti and Vekan saw on the long range scanner what appeared to be glitter sparkle around the newcomer then vanish.
"What was that?" Chakuva asked.
Nobody had an answer.
**No, Fido. Our new friends are hurt and can't go home** Dax started. The big ship had seen him, picked him up already
//no Dax no Fido can be warboi again//
**Fido is goodboi. Newboi need Fido to be goodboi**
Dax fired the C+ cannons, one right after another, as fast as he could without risking warping his ship's frame, ordering the warbois to bring up hotshot for the C+ cannons.
The crew of the Sweet felt as if someone was plucking at their bone marrow like it was ghostly guitar strings. Four deep vibrations that seemed to come from deep inside.
//Dax need Fido//
**I need you to help them. Get them to Confed space**
Nakteti saw that the massive ship, which was now passing her little ship, suddenly rolled, ponderously because of its size, but rolled all the same.
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//Dax need Fido//
**They need you more, buddy**
Dax saw the cannon shells hit first. The size of an old train car, solid iron, more often used as auxiliary fuel sources than actual shells. They were moving at .995C when they hit the armor of the leviathan now hurtling toward him.
All they left was deep craters, adding to the craters from battles past that the behemoth had survived.
//newbois need Fido?//
**Yes Fido take them to CONFED**
"Silent running," Chakuva said suddenly. He sounded resigned. "If it will matter."
The missiles Dax had fired before dropped stealth, blowing free their shielding, deploying the submunitions. The submunitions spread out, orienting, and triggered. Graviton generators spun up, creating gravity lenses, focusing the nuclear explosion into a lance of energy.
Dozens of beams stabbed into the behemoth's armor, raking it, gouging at it with talons.
Making nothing but pockmarks.
**I can't beat him, Fido**
//Fido help//
Dax 'felt' his point defense to to rapid fire, heard the VI's telling him each time a missile was wiped away, each torpedo that was destroyed. His point defense, the best money could buy from gray market dealers, driven by the best VI's outside the Confederate Navy, wiped away all of the incoming missiles and torpedoes.
But Dax could tell it had been close.
**help newbois, Fido, help newbois**
//Fido help newbois//
Dax triggered the ejection for Fido's frame, timing it with another missile launch and firing off the C+ cannons at the same time. It wasn't much but Dax hoped it was enough to hide Fido's launch in the background clutter of another attack.
//Fido love Dax//
and he was gone.
**Dax love Fido** he thought the empty spot that had been Fido for eons. He concentrated on the battle at hand.
Dax knew he couldn't stop it, knew he couldn't kill it, but he could hurt it. Wound it. Slow it down.
Maybe that will be enough.
The crew of the Sweet felt that ghostly plucking at their bones again. Nakteti and Vekan saw the glitter again. They watched as the newcomer's ship rolled, obvious intending on making a broadside to broadside attack run.
They watched the two other ships dance. The newcomer smaller, more agile than its opponent, moving in to fire close range weapons, fading back to use longer range ones, always where the opponents weapons didn't strike. The newcomer deployed decoys and vanished, fired off jammers and strobing pulses of energy designed to confuse and blind sensors, always moving to get behind the larger foe.
Both of the combatants were massive compared to the Sweet but they moved like smaller ships. Lektat steathily moved the Sweet further and further away, trying to avoid the attention of either of the two ships.
"Acceleration on the big one's dropping. I can't be positive but I think our friend hit something," Vekan said softly.
"Finally," Nakteti breathed. The fight had been going on for almost two hours and all four of her hands ached from squeezing the arms of her crash couch.
"We might have a problem of our own," Chakuva said quietly.
Nakteti frowned at him and he tapped one his active display boards.
"I've got some motion sensors reporting movement. I don't have many left, most of the systems are still down, but twice I've had a crew-member report that something was moving on the other side of a wall. Something heading this way," Chakuva said.
The reminder that some of her crew was still alive was a cold comfort to Nakteti at the idea of something launched by that horrific ship boarding her poor wounded Sweet.
"The armory," she started suggest.
"Gone. Same with security," Chakuva said.
"Where is it?" Nakteti asked.
"Hang on," Chakuva pressed one hand to his ear, listening to another crew member. He looked up, his eyes wide with fear. "Taltek saw it. He's only a few decks away. He said it's a large four legged robot.
"And it's heading our way."
Nakteti opened her mouth to reply when a new signal appeared on her display.
//Fido goodboi//
//Fido sorry not ask to come in//
//Fido help newboi//
//Dax say Fido take newboi to CONFED//
//sneaky sneaky time//
//Fido love Dax//
Nakteti looked up. "Does anyone know what a Fido is?"
The crew shook their head.
//Fido help newboi//
"Captain, that Fido thing is asking me to let it steer. It's showing me a jumpspace coordinate," Lektat said, still staring at his panels.
"Tell it the front of the hull is open to space and we're stuck in here," Nakteti said, fighting the urge to just go limp and let the universe just finally kill her.
Lektat nodded, tapping on his display. It felt weird that the only thing Nakteti could hear was her own breathing, her ship groan around her, and the radio. She felt like she should be able to hear more. Anything more. Just... more.
//jump jump jump//
That was all the warning Nakteti got. The ship shuddered as the jump engines fired up and the jumpcore dumped all its power into the drives. Several intact screens exploded as they overloaded, the lights brightened, then dimmed.
And they were in jumpspace. The colors whirling, tastes dancing on Nakteti's tongue, metallic plinking coming to her ears, and the smell of a warm summer day flooding her nasal cavity.
Then they were out.
Out of habit Nakteti glanced at her screen, looking for a reading on how close they were to the boundary, what kind of star they had come out to, how many planets were nearby.
Instead there was nothing.
Just empty space with stars in the distance.
//woundlick//
//Fido help//
//Fido miss Dax//