Unfortunately for the pirates, most of their fleet had managed to get within range of our sensor drones out there, and we had a very good breakdown of their fleet. Peter was going through the ship types and known information on them, sending them off to Peggy, who was parsing everything as she fed the data into the ship’s weapon systems. Certain races and styles of ships were more vulnerable to different energy bandwidths and attack forms, had different shield configurations, and used different types of cannons on the attack. By having that data right on hand, the shields could modulate to maximize defensive strength without actually draining more power.
It was considered an elite move by Xandaran crews, and largely unnecessary given the ample power supplies they had. They tended to sit on some broadly useful shield configs and just outlast bombardments with superior staying power.
Eh, we had super-soldiers and Spiders along. Giving them elite stuff to do was like normal work.
“Any estimations on contact, McCoy?”
“It depends on their recklessness, Captain. A prudent deployment and net attack, we are looking at an hour or more, and they might lose a fair chunk of their fleet to turbulence washing them out of range. If they come in fast and reckless, they might miss us entirely if they read our wake wrong and the storm twists our trail, but they’ll hit us with most of their fleet.” He did some mental calculations. “Earliest contact within, mmm, fifteen minutes, I’d say?”
“I’d give the leading edge thirteen minutes, twenty seconds at breakneck speed, and scroll upwards from there depending on their piloting skills and discipline. They’ll have to pull back the scouts to the main fleet and use tractors to maintain positions in the storm,” I supplied. “I don’t think the light ships have the specs to maintain a pursuit in a hyperspace storm.”
“Their shields are definitely below the stabilization threshold!” Peter confirmed after a quick scan of the data. “They’ve got maybe ten ships that can hold steady at this level of turbulence!”
“So, we can shatter the fleet more easily now, but that just lets them run away,” Peggy murmured. “They’ll want to use the smaller ships for the boarding actions first, so they are probably using this time to reassign their boarding troops.”
“Use those hyperspace-capable warheads at your own cognizance,” Richard told her.
“Yes, Captain.” Super-soldier tactical brains were set to spinning, and her hands never stopped moving at her station. Normally she’d be running the anti-boarding operations strictly solo, but with Cyke now on the hullsweepers instead of running Weapons with his instant spatial calculation, she had taken over the Weapon systems as well, seeing as they weren’t going to be getting near as much work. Even the point defenses would be next to ineffectual outside the drive field, and the kinetic hull sweepers were meant to deal with things like swarm-level nanites and organic infiltrators, not enemy landing vessels.
If they came up on us with all those small ships nestled up to the mother ships for troop transfer, mmm, those missiles could wipe out half the fleet or more really fast. With the sensor cloaks up, the pirates shouldn’t even realize we had the launchers ready before it was too late, and unless their tubes were open, they looked like shield emitter pylons.
------
Redeployment of everyone finished, rush, rush, rush; wait, wait, wait. The timer to best initial contact counted down patiently, arrived, and began to stretch out the other side as we all waited and shuddered with the ship moving this way and that, watching in our greatly shrunken sensor range.
The BREEP of mutual active sensor contact at sixteen minutes and forty seconds was a relief instead of an alarm.
“Heavy Arcturan-class cruiser Axes of Ashes entering sensor range,” Gwen reported for everyone. “Six additional contacts attached to the ship. Course altering... it is closing, Captain.”
“If this storm were not here, I could go out there and beat on them!” Kismet swore, shaking her fist in the appropriate direction. She was actually capable of surviving hyperspace without a problem, something that generally took a Nova Six to accomplish, a Seven to be able to navigate, and an Eight to actually be able to reach on their own. But with the storm, she would be blown off-course, and we’d likely lose her, even if she managed to make it to the other ships and start blowing the heck out of them.
-Patience. Review where the power cores are on the enemy vessels and be ready to use the tightest beams you can,- I /told her calmly. Letting secondary explosions finish the vessels was the fastest and most efficient way to kill them.
“Second major contact, Luphomoid cruiser Screaming Jaw. Third major contact...” Gwen’s voice droned on, as impartial as Cindy’s while Cindy was constantly re-attuning the sensors to keep things clear and steady. The pirates would be having a hell of a time doing the same.
HUD’s tracked the ships as we watched them close in and surround us. None of them were close to the size of the Starholder, but total tonnage was likely going to exceed her... not that it mattered much.
“Luphomoid Carrier Endless Conquest entering range. Nine contacts attached...”
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-That’s Zorr’s ship,- I /reminded Kismet. The stats played out... it was nearly as long as the Starholder, but built to carry landing vessels, not a battleship for slugging it out in space. -Hah, look at that, moving right up to take the lead vector. It’s just going to beat the others to us.-
-That means he’s an overconfident motherfucker?- she /asked with cheerful innocence.
-If he personally leads a boarding party I am going to laugh so damn hard,- I /agreed. -It is very important the rat bastard does not get away.-
“Hull sweepers get into position!” Peggy ordered, and it was time for us to move.
The Drive Shield would protect us from most of the storm, but also keep us very close to the hull, so basically we were to stay in physical contact of the hull if possible, even if flying, so we could anchor to it on demand.
Kismet was a walking cannon, so she had nothing to carry around. I was using a couple cannons, Cyclops had his eyeballs, and Jewel, well, she was using the modulation field and a lot of practice to feed Cyclops.
Scott Summers had energy absorption capabilities, and had worked hard on them over the years. They weren’t really made for combat absorption at all, except between him and his brothers... but the simple fact he COULD absorb energies like that, and basically in unlimited amounts, meant it was simply a matter of finding the right attunements to allow him to do so.
The Nova Force was some pretty adaptable stuff, and we’d been working on his armor a long time. Transforming the energy into something he could use was totally possible, and it made his Optic Blast something very dangerous, because the Nova Force was far more explosive than it was focused.
Preliminary tests with Nova some time ago revealed that venting Nova Force with Cyke’s optic beam basically stacked an explosive component to the push/cut mechanic of his base beam. That shredding, destructive force wasn’t something to use in a normal fight, but when you are cutting apart ships and sweeping them off the hull of a giant starship, it’s just the sort of thing useful for making your job easier.
Also, it was psychokinetic force riding photons. Normally, using lased effects meant an attack would be nigh-on-useless outside a drive field, warping and bending impossibly as spatial mechanics did crazy things to optics here. Particle beams, lasers, plasma bursts, and material round launches were as likely to hit you as they were the enemy in hyperspace.
But the psychokinetic force of his ruby beam bolstered it so it proceeded ramrod straight, although his other colors were still useless. In other words, Cyclops had a totally viable ranged attack that wasn’t reliant on a drive field in hyperspace!
We could actually have used him as a point defense system himself, except for the fact that optics were totally screwy in hyperspace and he couldn’t aim accurately.
The Xandaran Nova uniform helmets had inbuilt sensors that, sufficiently bolstered by Nova Force, could disseminate a visual equivalent of hyperspace and allow aiming and navigation. Nova Cores at Eight or higher could actually launch energy bursts that would stay intact and hit their targets here, too.
Alas, there was Richard and me at Five, and Jewel at Four, and only Rich had such a helmet. The tech didn’t seem to work too well without a Nova Core, so there we were, and my magic didn’t seem to help.
That didn’t mean magic couldn’t work. Surely there had to be someone who’d invented a magical Hyperspace View or something, right?
Of course there was. The universe was a big place, and law of large numbers said it was so. I Exemplar Surged for the spell, using an VIII Valence to be on the safe side, and was awarded with the III Valence foundational spell, bolstered up by Raise effects for duration. I also quickly Wrote it into Vier, who was always happy to host more spells.
The swirling proto-color cloud of hyperspace chaos resolved into visual and mental equivalents of hyperspace every bit as detailed as those of the ship’s sensor array after I Cast it. I could see the flow of space and time flowing past the ship, and even judge relative speed. The shuffling surges and settling of the storm caused by dimensional shifts and friction between planes was also apparent, I could see the ‘wind’, as it were. Gravity wells were black stars, strings, webs, and spheres stretching out through causality, while magnetic fields were like glowing bubbles streaming many-colored lines of light and energy as they carried on through the void.
There were streams and tides of vast size, crossing light years in even their simplest forms, phlogiston rivers that when identified were used as trade routes between stars and galaxies.
It was very, very interesting to see, and lo, the sections of my head devoted to higher math started really percolating, seeing it all.
And I smiled.
“Jewel, you and I are switching partners! I’m going to be spotting for Cyke!” Kismet was surprised, but adjusted quickly enough. Jewel was also surprised, but I passed over my Nova-powered blaster and she perked right up. “Peggy, I’ve just worked out a personal effect for hyperspace visibility on myself, and can spot for Cyclops! Give us a shooting position, quick!”
She didn’t bother to ask questions, just telling me to get atop a shield node amidships that would give me an excellent view of the incoming ships and landers.
I swung Cyclops around and stuck him to my backside before taking off, his head basically next to my right ear.
“Feeding you a visual holo, Scott,” I said on the close channel, and fed it over in front of him. “There’s gonna be a small offset because this is from my position, but it shouldn’t matter much.”
“Wow!” he muttered, following my gaze as I looked above us while streaking down along the hull quickly to our position, Jewel and Kismet moving to a different location to greet the landers, not incidentally with angles of attack for anything trying to get in the hangar doors.
“Start juicing me, and I’ll see how much range I can get,” he said, fixing on a target in the holo that was basically encompassing his whole head at the moment. Me not having to wear a full suit of armor helped when having to look around.
His modulator was on the cross-strap at the front of his armor. I promptly started dumping Wrath and Reserve juice into it, and everything I could dump from my Nova Core, leaving my Ring and Soul magic for charging my rail cannon.
Well, shit. -Dealer!- I /shouted on our Tatlink.
-Jawohl, oh mighty primary?- she /answered promptly.
-I need an Infusion to allow things to shoot straight in hyperspace!-
-You Surged for something else?- she /asked, Casting the spell.
-Hyperspace View, allowing me to actually see here!-
-We’re not thinking far enough ahead,- she /muttered, reflecting my own sentiments.
-Too much stuff on my mind,- I /groused. -My original thinking is suffering.-
-I’ll start brainstorming some space-specific stuff for us,- she /said, and our link widened for me to get a good look at the Infusion, and the underlying Weapon Enchantment it emulated.