Ursula and Sunny had sent over Breathe in the Void and Voidsleep spells off Surges, with whole lists of potential spells for us all to go grabbing for over the next few days. The prior one allowed one to breathe in a vacuum without a problem, and even warded off the chill of the void. The second allowed you to place someone in stasis that would last as long as they were in vacuum, potentially lasting for centuries or longer if they floated free.
Felicia came back with Hyperspace Course, basically a Find the Path that worked in hyperspace, while Kwannon sent over Hyperspace Transmission via telepathic relay, allowing the Caster to basically Send and Message through hyperspace without a problem, even to electronic coms. Dealer was coordinating the list, so we should have quite a few space-specific spells before too long.
It was nice that the Markspace links worked perfectly. I was sure Sama was getting all the updates she needed from Peggy and Kismet.
Basically, our time was spent completely on repairs and getting prepped for a realspace drop as soon as we exited the hyperspace storm.
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It was another thirty-two hours after the disposal of the pirates before we came spinning out of the storm, and the ship-wide alert sent everyone to battle stations once more.
There was a gravity well nearby, so we weren’t that far from a star, which should rapidly give us a positional fix. Readings in hyperspace were often erratic and distorted by the medium, which was why currently viable routes in hyperspace were so prized.
With everyone at battle stations, but expecting nothing more than a navigational fix (I did Cast my new spell, noting that we actually weren’t all that far from the Shi’ar Throneworld of Chandilar) we dropped out of hyperspace into normal space.
Naturally enough, all the proximity alerts went off at once.
“Organic lifeforms in all directions!” Peter sang out from the science station. “Space-faring bioforms engaged at interplanetary speeds!”
There were hundreds of them on the sensors, filling the holosphere with many targets, many of them veering wildly away from the massive ship that had just appeared among them.
“Bring all the lances online!” Richard shouted immediately. “Identity and type of the bioships!”
Bioships... there were far too many races using bioships that were utterly hostile to others. Flying polyps, Mi-go, Cerevores, Cephalids...
Types of lifeforms rippled up one after another. I narrowed my eyes.
“Peggy, lose your helmet!” I called out, pointing sharply. Startled, she lifted it off. “Broadband telepathic broadcast, tell the free Acanti to identify themselves! Peggy, flag their pursuers!”
Gwen’s fingers flickered. “Xandaran ship Starholder to the free Acanti, please identify yourselves and your positions,” she said into the coms, which would only be received by like telepathic creatures.
There were shark, squidish, and birdlike ships on the display, too, and they were all flagged as commonly slaved bioforms to the Brood... as were the Acanti, gentle telepathic space whales known across the galaxy for their benevolent and pacificist natures.
Peggy’s eyes popped open as the replies came calling back in telepathic song. Not looking at her board, her eyes fixed on the dizzying spiral of moving contacts all around us, and her fingers began to dance and paint targets as safe, first in the local area, and then rapidly spreading as she continued at a breakneck pace.
“Cyke, start painting and wiping! Start with the sharks and work your way down the non-Acanti!” Richard ordered, jumping on the bandwagon. “Missile turrets up! Clear the hangar deck and open the doors! Engineering, pull up full power! Engage the point defenses and sweeper fields! Signal the Acanti that the hangar is safe territory! Peggy, run their defensive maneuvering! Grimm, McCoy, put us right in the thick of that mess and find us some big Brood targets! Ice, on the main gun!”
“Aye, aye, Cap’n!” Grimm bellowed over everybody else as the Starholder’s drives and defensive fields all crackled up, and everyone except me got really busy really fast.
There were distant vibrations through the hull as the Shi’ar lance cannons, already deployed in case of trouble, began to speak, shooting out into space with the instant compensation for distance and merciless accuracy of being linked to super-sniper Cyclops, coordinating the first salvo of barrages that abruptly wiped away fifty hostile bioships from our immediate vicinity.
“We’ve got a hostile carrier, likely a virused Acanti elder,” Cindy swore, lifting away her own headband, and gasping as she picked up the telepathic waves coming on and past her. More icons lit up with feeds and colors on the main holofield. “Length in excess of thirty kliks!”
I noted the scattering of the Acanti was starting to coalesce and form into a grander pattern as their fishlike scattering from their pursuers began to coordinate under Peggy’s guidance... and come in our direction.
The main gun sparked, targets were painted, arcs converged, and the discharge ripped out through space.
Four arcing loops of pursued space whales lined themselves up perfectly at the instant of discharge, and twelve bioships were blasted to vapor instantly.
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The first Acanti children zipped into the hangar bay, atmosphere vented to avoid real problems, and they drifted immediately into positions to the side, getting out of the way of those coming in behind, as naturally as if they were tucking up into a coral reef.
The skysharks coming after them slammed right into the teeth of the covering fire, a couple of them making it to the point defenses and getting caught by the converging flashes of the defense grid, spraying themselves wetly across the hull.
Missiles began to launch as the Acanti came winging in closer... and they swept right past the starwhales into the faces of their pursuers. Bioships blew apart into vaporized meat and biomechanical additions, and the main cannon discharged again, sweeping across squads of pursuers who magically lined themselves up to receive it and continue the carnage.
“Hold the main gun for the capital-class slave vessels,” Richard ordered. “Grimm, we’ve got the legs on them, but we’ll have to get in close to rake them. Engineering, I need all guns charged for a broadside, and keep those shields on high!”
With delayed reactions, the Brood slavers suddenly peeled off from their pursuits, but too many of them were already inside the firing arcs of the Starholder. The lances flashed out into the stars as dozens of missiles launched at railgun velocities came in on them and took them out.
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“Visuals up!” The holo display of the main slaver fleet materialized in front of us.
They were packed much too close for space combat, but obviously were not going to be maneuvering around. City-sized domes of glass and plastic jutted from the bioship bodies like cancerous pustules, built right into their flesh and anchored into their bones, marring their lines and natural grace with infestations of intrusive alien technology. The bioships we were dealing with were like guppies at best next to the mass of the largest one, which stood out at forty kliks long.
“That big one could swallow us,” Peter said, staring at the acanti slaveship and the width of its jaws.
“Analysis of it? Mr. Grimm, keep us at a safe distance.”
“On it, sir.” The Starholder came around, the Acanti altering course to match us.
“Reconfigure the main gun for range. Let’s see if they have decent shield tech, or are relying on bulk and the Acanti psi-ablation.”
“Wait for my okay, Captain!” I said, and zipped out into the drop shaft and up towards the Nova Cannon.
Xandaran ships had just an incredible amount of firepower for their size. Shi’ar Dreadnoughts would think twice about going up against an Xandaran vessel less than a tenth their size.
It was the same place I’d been at before, with the addition of passing a lot of solidly frozen gases wrapped around the main power lines and feeds, courtesy of Iceman, who waved at me as I zipped by.
I activated my own telepathic coms, hooking into the incoming Acanti starsong, and immediately felt images and pictures filling me with a rare beauty and understanding of space and the energies filling it, backed by a mammoth racial history and appreciation for the grandeur and glory of all of infinity.
Peggy’s influence was visible in the way the waves and song were modulating and shifting, arranging the Acanti into layer upon layer of gravimetric boosters that were also synching up with the fields coming off the Starholder. Using the Xandaran ship as a resonating anchor, even the larger Acanti had no difficulties using the Starholder deftly and effortlessly as the leader of the pack, and were easily outdistancing the Brood slaver fleet behind us.
Enhancement bonuses to capital weapons were next to useless, the benefit so small as to be unnoticed as far as damage went. But it had been an entire day and more, which meant I could Surge once more, and take advantage of new downloads from the others.
Artillery Infusion! Field Penetration! Cohesive Fire! Devouring Blast! Fragmenting Blast!
Today’s fun specials sauntered their way into my head and were Written into Vier and deposited into waiting empty Valence Slots.
Distance and Accuracy were the main ranged effects I wanted on the big gun via a preparatory Artillery Infusion so they actually worked, with Vivus added as an afterthought. Doubling the range and wiping away the penalties for targeted shots was a massive advantage.
Field Penetration put a Caster Level check up against any shields they might have, and if it worked, Argent Savancy tore them apart.
Cohesive Fire enabled drilling through thick hide and armor. Devouring Blast was specifically made to do internal damage among the weakest points, i.e., tunnels and air pockets inside ships, expanding crazily along them to widen the area of effect against the crew. Fragmenting Blast shot the explosive detonations out into every direction with wild savagery, almost a Widen effect.
“Bringing up the Sublime Chord for the Acanti. We’re going to be focusing a lot of background cosmic energy along the main gun, so start on that big one if you can, Captain!”
And I began to Sing as I was Infusing.
My view of the universe was very different and new to the Acanti, and they were momentarily startled when it rang out in the mindscape. Then the universe began to light up on a different level, and they joined in on harmony with it, and felt the universe Singing back to them.
I could feel their wonder at what they could do with this new power, and the arc directly behind the Starholder flowed out of the way as power gathered first inside the conduits and feeds of the Nova Cannon, weaving in massively complex ornate runic Formations and Seals, sucking in even more juice from Fixer’s pulsing white hole Core.
“We need an accurate map of Acanti physiology.” Instantly massively detailed charts and tracts of the Acanti’s bodies swirled into existence in my mind. “Cyclops, target the brain chamber of the Acanti capital ships. The viruses that slave them destroy most of their brains, which are replaced by bioorganic computers hijacking its neural network to command the body. Wipe that, and the shock will kill the bioships.” Which would immediately make them massive food for vivic flames...
“Got it. Holy shit, did you just double the range of the gun? The fields are responding so smoothly...”
“Any time, Gunner!” Captain Ryder interrupted calmly.
“Acquiring. Narrowing focus. Hit a high note!” Cyclops said instinctively, and along with me, the entire pod of starwhales converged their melodies and lifted a Chord to the universe.
Rainbows swam through the entire pod, converged on the point of the main gun, flowed back down its hole to the firing point, and wound about the space-tearing annihilation that tore backwards for ten light-seconds behind us.