I snarled and panicked a little. I expected something, a bent rod, anything! But still, I sped up aimed at the bridge. My cannons glowed with vengeance. Having ordered two salvos that drifted behind me. I had six full salvos left. Willow fired the main cannons. The Urdent’s Salvation dimmed and the dimensional slip automatically activated. All systems went dark for thirty seconds.
For thirty seconds, we drifted in darkness. The ship was coming alive as the power generators recovered from the main cannons being fired. I guessed that they were supposed to be fired one at a time. The dark soothed us and gave me time to plan. At max speed, I would come out the other side almost four kilometres away. The fight had taken about two minutes and the missiles I left behind had been programmed to go off when we entered normal space.
Distractions were important, especially since I knew that if the enemy was competent. They would be using a predictive combat AI to gauge where I will come out. A small distraction would help to divert my enemies. Coming out at the same place one enters is a fantastic trick. Difficult to pull off but when done right devastating.
We hadn’t done that but as we came out. Beauty reported from the sensor. One of the Seed Ships had covered the hole. On the top of the Maker ship that the Nova cannons created. Best of all, the Maker ship had died. And even stopped producing the seed ships. It was eighty percent done. I delayed fired everything! All six salvos. We coded and shot into space then linked to attack at once. This created a single strike with seven hundred and twenty Shriek Missile strike!
The other Seed ships were in a state of recovery. they must have a Direct to Home Device or skill. All parasite crafts have a DHD. Be it a temporal displacement drive, a Directed teleportation skill, or even a wormhole device. Dhd's let a parasite craft return in a fraction of normal time.
I delayed fired because I needed my turrets to eat away at the vital exposed systems. The seed ships don't have any defences with out the Maker ship to provide oversight. Furiously, Willow typed away at her console. She was taxing our connection. It was at my behest, but parallel thinking means that sometimes. I don't know exactly what I have sent her to do until I recalled it.
Beast fired the turret. He focused on the seed ships that looked the most bloated. I hoped something would give and blessedly we got sympathetic explosions as we passed. The two-kilometre mark. My ship bumped up like a sailing ship hitting a reef. On closer observation, it was Willow. She had dispatched the two parasite craft at full blast. They were thrown at the Maker ship! The Nydolyn Maker pitched unnaturally, as even redundant systems were taken out by the armoured parasite craft.
"YES!!!" Beast followed up on any exposed area as the Nydolyn Maker flickered and fired death rattle shots of struggles.
"BOOOM!" My ship rattled as an engine was shot off. One of the rail guns had come around.
BOOM!!! My bow was shattered by another round. I was thrown out of my seat and spun around. Beauty lunged for me and threw me toward the a small empty console. She pushed my prone body in the middle of the bridge toward Sam. Suri took control of the ship. Beast even got self-defence turrets firing at the enemy! Something I had seen in The Ten Days War.
Crack! A wave of fire exploded out of The Urdant’s Salvation as something vital died. I screamed out loud when I was flung across the bridge. It broke something Important in me. I couldn’t feel my toes or legs. It would heal but it would take some time. More time than I had left to complete the final trial. I just needed to make sure the Maker ship was dead for real. My bio-droids are the strength in my arms, the holders of my dreams.
Beauty arrived, twisting me around as she tried to control the bleeding from my back. I pushed commands to Mabena. Before I remembered, he was down. The others were at important consoles or too far away to be of immediate help.
I pushed to Willow. Who had actually been pinging me for a while. It's just that her pathway to my mind was the same one experiencing the most amount of pain.
"DO it!" With focus, I got the just of the plan and told her to execute it. Thrusters came alive as the main cannon glowed and power all over the ship dropped. The Nydolyn Maker ship twisted with the aid of the connected Seed ships. It aimed four of its main rail guns toward us. The bullets fired and my ship went dark.
[Analysing...]
[The Cadet has initiated a non-standard function of the dimensional slip.]
[Processing...]
The room froze around me and everything came to stand still, even the air. It was eerie, almost like stumbling into an Elreka zone. At least I don't experience any temporal shearing. I have been in temporal stasis before and by all my senses, this was not a type of stasis. The cause was my cloak. A dimensional slip was like a limited teleport, in that it displaced matter from one zone to another. But that process could be broken, but the effects were normally devastating.
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It ruined dimensional stability, but it was as good a plan as any. The shot that sheared off my engine left it fully intact but not attached. The process of the slips was that one engine opened the way in and the other the way out. This prevented for example irregular dimensional displacement.
Where out-of-frequency dual engines created two separate much smaller dimensional. These spaces would gradually become smaller and crush the ship. The ship would also be unable to return to the normal dimensional frequency as it was damn near impossible to work out the spatial trans-dimensional frequency without an Observer probe.
The main problem I thought the system was dealing with. While it was possible, in my current situation, it shouldn't be probable. However! The maths supported my attempt because I used the cloak as a wormhole generator.
Yeah, invisibility cloaks are things only found in movies. The closest thing, in reality, was probably an Olonkungulu Cloak that made all signals put out by the thing it was attached to appear to be background solar noise. Thus it rendered it completely invisible to sensors, and they painted it black because all stealth ships are black.
So I anxiously waited to see what the system thought of the energy calculations Willow had done. This is incredibly odd. I knew what she did it. I knew I told her to do it, but I don't remember telling her to do it. It's like scratching an itch I'm not always cognizant of when I do it.
[Resuming...]
Two portals were opened! The rounds flew toward us and destroyed everything in the intervening space. All safeties were removed, and the power plant was overloaded, charging the main cannons instantly. Two miniature suns blastered the flickering opened portal as the symbiont core was expelled with the bridge leaving behind the husk of a dying ship.
The suns appeared moments later next to the Maker ship. One of them detached itself and managed to sacrifice themselves. As we floated away all sensors went dead as the Husk of my ship was turned to dust. We watched as the bright plums of ships became stardust go off in the distance.
We waited...
I tensed as nothing happened. In the distance, a Seed ship left the wrecked and damaged Maker ship. I gritted my teeth that was not great. I had failed. The seed ship would gather resources and the Maker ship would fix itself.
"Shit!" I felt my rage and the pain in my back stifling any chance I have at expressing my impotent rage. Sam put a mine detonator in my hand. I sent the command. As part of Predator doctrine. When we strife an enemy. We tend to leave mines behind. This was to hinder movement and create strikes of opportunities. Eighty mines were placed and twenty of those have found themselves where they shouldn't be.
I let Sam push the button, he didn't smile, only carried out my order. The explosion was subdued and barely noticeable, but the flickering of the Nydolyn Maker Ship showed me that something very important had broken. All over the ship, secondary explosions went off. Then it went supernova and turned everything asunder.
[All enemies eliminated]
[Score: passed 50.51% rounded to 51%]
[Solo clear!!!]
[Challenge completed!!!]
[Service ribbon awarded!]
Name: Competent Commander
Rank: Cadet
Rarity: Supreme
Information: The path of the true commander is a perilous path and you are beset on all sides. With this title, you can enter any Founder zone and challenge for rewards. Hone your skills and raise up the ranks!
Description: Grants the holder and members of their fleet, increased reaction speed.
Upgradable!
[Room Rewards]
Name: Pilot Specialisation Specification Kit
Rank: Superior
Rarity: Epic
Information: This is a special kit for commanders with greater potential than most. Potential is just that, this kit will outfit the commander with all skills, items and basic competences necessary [Guardian Clear Reward]
[Completed Supreme Ship and Equipment Package]
Rank: Superior
Rarity: Epic
Information: This superior ship package can be turned in at any shipyard for the construction of a superior symbiont ship. The selection is restricted to the level of development[1]. The equipment package will provide a rank-appropriate complete materials package.
Artefact Upgraded to Supreme….The rank of your rewards has been increased from Superior to Supreme.
[Seed Ship Kills]
[Nydolyn Supreme Technology]
Name: Miniaturised shipyard
Rank: Supreme
Information: The Nydolyn race created this shipyard for their Maker ships after their homeworld was destroyed. The Miniaturised shipyard is a conversion model and part of a set.
[Nydolyn Supreme Technology]
Name: Miniaturised Materials Hub
Rank: Supreme
Information: The Nydolyn race created this refinement module for their Maker ships after their homeworld was destroyed. This module was created to support the Miniaturised shipyard by processing vast amounts of raw material into usable materials. The miniaturized Refinement module is a conversion model and part of a set.
[Nydolyn Supreme Technology]
Name: Miniaturised Singularity Core
Rank: Supreme
Information: The Nydolyn race created this power plant module for their Maker ships after their homeworld was destroyed. The miniaturized power plant module is a conversion model and part of a set.
[Nydolyn Supreme Technology]
Name: Miniaturised Hammerspace modules
Rank: Supreme
Information: The Nydolyn race appropriated this technology, this hammerspace module for all ships after their homeworld was destroyed. This module is a prerequisite before any Nydolyn technology can be installed. The module is a restricted technology and cannot be dropped. The miniaturized Hammerspacemodules module is a conversion model and part of a set.