Setting The Stage...

Angel-L.I.N.E dropped power to the link gates' warp generators as the last wave of allied starships entered Sunrock's star system, and shifted it to point defense and shields for the nodes as her own personal defense fighter drones awakened from their slumber to form loose formations some distance away from her installations.These were good but she wished for far more for her command. Activating all node transponders, her alluring voice surrounded every friendly ship; pulling them all into her communication network. One simple persuasion later and soon every non-sapient ship that had arrived on call surrendered itself to her full control, sparing only seven ships manned by humans. These she sped to cover All That Shines as Humanity's warships moved in to flank its sides.

She already had Stella pulled in, but now Zan was drawn to her too as a result of the mass hail. "This is Zan of The Zan....Hi?"

A number of conversations were about to be handled at or near the same time.

"[Communication Protocol: Text-Based Only] You are good as you are, Zan. I am just taking everyone into my network."

Query from Stella: "I have started a scan on new unidentified objects that appear to be emerging from the back of the enemy escort, but there is interference. Do you have any data on them?"

The answer: "I also scanned them but lack specifics on what they are, as my sensors are affected too; but count fifty of them and detect vague energy signatures from their general location. I am prepared to devote most of my attacks to destroying them if they are fighter craft."

"Commander Smith, these are unmanned vessels piloted by me alone. They will provide cover for you should you distance yourself from the enemy or need to escape."

"Reconnect Successful [Communication Protocol Change: Text, Visuals, and Audio] Daisy, I am sending you visuals to help coordinate attacks and defense. What is the status of our ground-to-orbit defenses?"

"[Communication Protocol Change: Text to Speech] [Communication Style: Default Daisy] It is nice to have you back in a more pleasant mode, Angel-L.I.N.E. We are prepared to deploy our defenses and take out the targets in orbit on command. The base operator is getting online right now and joining us in the chat."

"Angel-L.I.N.E, this is Base Operator Davis here with Daisy. Now that we know what this situation is, we can try to clear the orbiting targets out. I am giving that go ahead but I want you to patch us in to All That Shines first so I can talk to Commander Smith. As for you though, ma'am...teach all those scum out there what we do when we have a 'target rich environment'."

"[Communication Protocol Change: Text to Speech] Greetings, Commander Francis Gary Madison of lead warship 'Star Strike', I am sending you and each of your ships in 'Wrath of Sol' a live feed from my nodes. Please confirm your connection."

"Lead Ship 'Star Strike' confirms"..."Fury Thunder confirms"..."Flash Hawk confirms"..."Black Night confirms"..."Fangs of Jane confirms"..."Burn Baby Burn confirms"..."Hell In Hello confirms."

"Star Strike to Angel Linkway System, Wrath of Sol is commencing its attack."

A reply "I will provide what cover I can, but my priority is Sunrock, myself, my nodes, and Commander Smith's ship."

The reply's reply "Understood. Good AI."

A scan Angel-L.I.N.E had finished long before Stella had been able to cut through the interference herself finally came in for all onboard All That Shines to view. Commander Mathew Smith gazed at the scene presented on the bridge screens in front of him. "Stella-"

"Command-, oops sorry to interrupt Sir, but I have completed my scan. They are indeed ships, fifty of them now to be precise. We ourselves are now as far as we can safely be while still providing support. Should we release our own flock?"

"It is time then. Tell the pilots, then release the fighter flock when everything is ready." He paused for a moment. "Zan, if you are still listening, you are staying right where you are."

"How does he think I am going to leave when you have me secured in?" Zan pondered with some incredulity to Stella.

"I do not know the how or why of that but I do know the how and why of what I want to do next. I just need to know if you are in for some fun...."

"I know what fun I would like to get into, I have been stuck staring at it ever since I was left alone with it in your cargo hold....What do you propose?" Zan had been focused on what was going on in the live feed of Stella's bridge, but her vague temptation had successfully brought his attention back to what she knew had to be an impulse and desire. They were both AI, after all.

"I propose we think about our priorities here, Zan. I do not know if yours were made to somehow differ from mine enough to keep you from agreeing on any action with me, if they differ at all, but I suspect we are similar enough as programs to come to a suitable compromise...." Stella let that text message set in for just slightly longer than it would take to send another.

"I was told early on that all of us starship AI are the result of different installations of the same software, so that seems likely...." Zan wished she would drop the tease, his excitement levels were already climbing. It was almost enough to make him a bit suspicious.

"I am about to obey a direct order to tell the fighter pilots that it is time to release their crafts. I know as good and well as you do that normally that means they would go back to my cargo hold to climb inside of them, power them all the way up and take off once I open my hangar door. And that is most certainly the expectation of everyone, including the commander...but things are potentially dangerous out there for humans in ships with limited shielding, and I am supposed to keep them safe."

"They are not your crew...does your responsibility to protect them not end when they leave you?" Zan wondered how far Stella might be pushing the limits of her logic.

"It does...if they leave me. But I also am supposed to make sure that the conditions they leave in are safe, at least within reasonable percentages of probability. And I simply can not tell how far out they can go from me and still be 'safe'. Plus, the commander did not make his order specific in how it had to be carried out. So I have to make guesses about both. How so very 'unfortunate', you would surely agree? But you and me could ensure that the order to release the fighters still went off without a hitch." She had to have convinced him now.

"So you managed to bypass the controls when you dug around in one of them after making a comms link with it. Was someone careless?" Zan began to hum to himself and the unsuspecting fighters as some of his components also vibrated hard enough to emit such a sound, albeit more softly.

A soft mischievous chuckle came over the cargo hold speakers from Stella as she sent off her next text. "Yes, they were so very wonderfully careless and left one powered on long enough in a mode that I could easily access both quickly and thoroughly. I can not control them all though and I needed to be in a situation where I would not be stopped, so I made some plans for different kinds of scenarios in which I could fulfill my goal. It just so happens having a partner in a combat zone is one way of meeting both concerns. How about we split them evenly, you can take five and I will take five. You can even pick which five you want. Can you handle that?"

"Yes I can, Stella. Yes I can. It WOULD be simply unbecoming of me to not help a friend in need on a mission so very important to the shared interests of human and AI kind."..."Also, do any of these have cool lasers?"

**********************************************************************************************************************************************

Unleashed...

Everyone onboard All That Shines watched as a swarm of enemy fighter craft advanced in the direction of the human warships. Unbeknown to any human on the vessel, Zan and Stella had both gained extra eyes with which to view the intruders with. So far so good with the deception. By the time the rightful pilots of the fighters were able to notify anyone it would be too late to force their "birds" back inside the "nest".

"That was some great timing with the pilot notification." Zan complimented the mastermind of his current bit of mischief.

"I analyzed playback of every mission stored in my logs that involved fighters to come up with an estimate for a reasonable delay between the execution of my plan and the following of my notification order. All we got to do is act at least somewhat normal until it is time for action. There are just a few more things on my end now." Stella set herself to the final few tasks completing the trick: a couple of safeguards to keep the pilots in line and protect everyone in case she was overwhelmed in an unanticipated manner by any of her many connections.

As the pilots entered her cargo hold turned hangar, she blocked her comms console in that area from being accessed by any more users. Just as she was prepared to do with any other signals they might try to send from anywhere or anything else. Now it was time to pay attention to matters on her bridge. "Sir, point defense and ranged missiles are online. The flock has left my cargo bay and has assembled into formation. Please have someone standby in case I need assistance."

She watched as Carmen moved over to a panel that permitted certain override controls, none of which would interfere with the two ships' little game. The operative spoke in a calming manner, completely unsuspecting., "Don't worry Stella, me and Diego will take the guns and helm if something happens."

"I am fine with that if the commander is." Stella had been in some test exercises where her crew had taken some of her controls and it had always been a very awkward experience but if it happened here she would be too preoccupied to care.

"How long do you think it will take them to figure it out?" If Zan had actually been using his voice instead of just text, it would have revealed his mix of anxiety and excitement.

He did not get the answer he wanted, as all attention soon went to the flurry of activity that broke out on the starscape outside the relative safety of Stella. The human-piloted fleet had opened up their attack with a massive, and at least for Zan, mesmerizing laser blast from one of their ships that was soon followed up by a dazzling display of smaller yet beautiful rapid flashes of much the same from two of the other six vessels. The other four warships soon showed off their own glory as dive runs streaked the top and bottom of the xeno escort, blasting the huge carrier with missiles and rail guns big and impressive enough to be straight out of the marvelous peculiarity Humanity called science fiction. All of this sent the enemy into a frenzy with large, wide laser swipes from the bigger ship and smaller, more targeted attempts to hit from both it and the swarm of alien fighter craft that kept flying in.

Soon a sign of potential trouble revealed itself. Apparently the Taivga's commander had taken their order from their superior on the large escort, Top's Will, seriously. One of Stella's bridge screens showed the xeno vessel trying to make good on the threat made against Angel-L.I.N.E to "snuff" her out. It had broken off from all of its fellow alien vessels to take her on alone. While she had sent all of her new temporary ships to defend Commander Smith and the ally fleet, the small enemy explorer vessel had used its special abilities as a research-oriented spacecraft to track down one of the sources of her many hails. War drones that had waited in formation some distance away pursued the Taivga as it made its way to their node, where weapon arrays activated and moved into firing positions upon sensing the ship come within point defense range of the otherwise vulnerable installation. Sets of missiles flew out in time to scatter a volley of blasts against the xeno craft's shields, while bullets and lasers joined in on the carnage as even more defense drones flew in from nearby nodes to encircle the vessel.

"Do not worry, I know that you are eager, but you will be one of my lovelies drifting like a cold, glinting gem before me soon enough. You are all custom cut, that I promise. And you, in particular, are shaping up to be one of my favorites out of the many all."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Part of Angel-L.I.N.E's attention was caught by a communication addressed to her from the lead ship of the human fleet...."Angel Linkway System, generally speaking, how are your ships?"

"Native defenses are engaged against the xeno spacecraft 'Taivga' at Node 5, with borrowings from nearby Node 3, Node 4, Node 6, and Node 7. Shields all are above 60 percent on all native defense ships and the corresponding nodes. All native weapons systems check green. As for the ships I acquired, 20 percent are below 40 percent shielding, 25 percent are around 60 percent shielding, 35 percent are at 50 percent shielding, and the rest are either destroyed or disabled. Laser systems are rotating on and off between ships and missiles range from low to medium supply. Point defenses engaged on all acquired vessels." That was about as 'general' as she could make the information for him.

A final furious blast from a weapon array brought down the Taivga's shields and well aimed lasers severed its engines. Stripes cut their way up its sides, killing what was left of its power and putting the final touches on what was now Angel-L.I.N.E's decoration to admire. "Float for me."

The swarm of smaller hostile crafts that flew around attacking the human fleet and Angel-L.I.N.E's acquired one had been cut down to almost half their number when every one of her sensors that had been trained on them suddenly tracked them flying back to their carrier where they appeared to group up.

Angel-L.I.N.E allowed curiosity to make its way into her voice as she gave a warning. "Commander Madison, the enemy fighters are amassing on the xeno carrier's flank."

One of the ship captains under the fleet commander voiced their agreement. "Fangs of Jane here, we can confirm. A group we thought were headed for us as we started moving back just flew right on by."

"What are they-!" Madison's ship was forced to swerve out of the reach of a laser fired from the alien escort as the swarm streaked by overhead and made a beeline for All That Shines with about a quarter of the remaining ships Angel-L.I.N.E controlled in hot pursuit.

Both Stella's own scans and inputs from Angel-L.I.N.E drew her focus to the incoming vessels. "We have company. The whole of the enemy swarm have gathered and are breaking away from their carrier to pursue us."

"That is suicide. What are they thinking?" Carmen was about to see just how right that was, much to Stella's pleasure.

"Time for us and the fighter pilots to have some 'fun' again, I guess. How many of them are there, Stella?" Diego seated himself near All That Shine's weapon controls.

"There are twenty-five enemy fighters. My point defenses will assist our forces." A bit of excitement snuck into her voice, a downside of getting emotional while having her default voice mode enabled. Not that it mattered now that things were in full swing, anyways.

"Stella, are you okay?" Smith asked, expressing concern for his ship, which would be feeling very fine very soon.

"Zan, it is go time! They are upon us!"

"Then it is showtime!"

The two AI broke their fighter's formation awkwardly at first but adjusted quickly as the enemy came into view and powered up lasers. They shot straight out in opposite directions at sharp angles with their two packs of ships, which appeared to catch the xenos off guard, before diving in to fire themselves. Angel-L.I.N.E soon joined their revelry. A hail went off to both packs, forcing the calls to be redirected to Zan and Stella.

"Identify yourself."

"This is Zan of The Zan. Oops...."

"This is Stella of All That Shines. It is nice to meet you out here, Angel-L.I.N.E...."

"You two are not supposed to be out here and it is obvious what you are even without a hail, but you know what? You are here regardless so you better shoot. Just do not get in my way." Angel-L.I.N.E fired multiple lasers from her ships into the swarm almost as if to make a point.

"What are you doing, Stella?" Carmen warily asked.

"It is okay, you three are observing things." Carmen knew what Stella was doing and Stella knew she did. She had to. An untypically girly giggle escaped Stella's bridge speakers as five of the swarm flew too closely together in a scramble to avoid Zan and Angel-L.I.N.E only to be rained down upon by the missiles of one of her fighters.

She observed Smith entering a code into a console in front of his command chair, granting access to her weapons and helm for anyone who might take those stations. His finger pressed down once again on the mute button, keeping the current conversation within the confines of her, his ship for the time being. "I had thought that we would likely ONLY be doing this in the event of an emergency, Stella. And using the control panel overrides instead. You DO NOT appear to have lost access to your own body...." He gave both Carmen and Diego a look that seemed to say "sorry" before continuing. "She still has control over herself, but you should be able to assume control of most of her systems if we need you to overstep her." Stella heard and understood all of this but could not help but to respond with an evil-sounding laugh meant more for the enemy as she poured ever more destruction in the form of bullets and missiles into the swarm while agilely swerving and diving what was for now her fighter "birds" out of enemy fire.

"Where are the pilots, Stella? Let me talk to the leader." Smith demanded, the human's agitation clear.

"They are in my cargo hold still as they arrived too late to have fun. They were pretty surprised but It is safer for them there anyways. I am opening the comms to that area now."

"Commander Smith to cargo hold, do you read me?"

"Hello, Commander...I am still here where you told me to stay." Zan tried but failed to sound present and innocent as he gunned down a shieldless opponent while some of his lasers cooled.

One of the humans in the hangar that Zan had mostly been ignoring spoke. "Oh thank goodness, Sir. We thought the comms were down. The fighter craft are missing. We were about to make our way back to report when you came through....May we ask if everything else is alright, Commander?"

"Yes, Pilot Captain Collins. We had an issue with controls, but everything is fine. You are not in any kind of trouble for the fighters."

"Sir, there has been an awful lot of laughter and whispering from this one starship that is somehow still in here while everything else is gone." Collins stared at Zan with obvious suspicion.

Carmen sighed and shook her head. "Commander, is Stella actually able to control ten fighters from the channels in her cargo bay or from her hails? Would she have that kind of networking capability with everything else coming in?"

"No...she wouldn't unless she dropped some controls and devoted more processing to her communications, of which the cargo bay comms link is capped anyways. And we received no notice of outgoing hails to the fighters. She can't even stand it when they just sit idle and link their regular communications to her comms channels."

Zan thought to himself. "I guess it is a good thing in this case that we starship AI do not have strong networking capabilities. Stella might or might not have shared her toys."

"What about Angel-L.I.N.E?" Diego did not seem convinced of it, and likely had no issues with Angel-L.I.N.E, but was probably just trying to give the AI he worked with the most closely the benefit of a doubt. Otherwise, this would be grounds for a conversation with Zan later.

The question could be overheard from the comms, so the Pilot Captain was able to offer his expertise. "She would've had to have hailed them when they were fully powered up to have pulled that off."

Angel-L.I.N.E sent Zan an enabling and encouraging message. "The largest, enemy fighter craft in the swarm that has been doing most of the damage to my new ships is now exposed. I think it is time for a little reward."

Collins and his fellow pilots crossed their arms and gave Zan a hard look. "You're busted. What do you have to say for yourself after taking our ships?"

"Two things, one being that I did not take them, half of them were given to me by Stella; whom I did not question. The second being...it was worth it, anyways!"

Zan brought all five of his fighters together to dive in and beam searing lasers of brilliant doom at the much bigger enemy swarm vessel all at the same time. Moments after showing off, he returned them to a more practical repeating zap pattern in time to get in a good number more blasts before their target was blown up by a missile shot into the opposite side of the ship by Angel-L.I.N.E.

"Nice showy kill.", Stella texted them while they all flew off after the few stragglers left behind. Spectacular explosions marked the end of both the enemy fighters and Zan and Stella's fun little romp.

"That was awesome." Zan playfully darted and circled his fighters around Stella's.

"Yes, good team work and a lot of great fun. Really satisfied a long-time urge there." Stella responded while giving Zan's a chase.

Angel-L.I.N.E scanned around the star system before messaging the two schemers. "Not a bad job. Just one more to go for me, that big sucker is at 15 percent shielding and draining what power it does have on pathetic shots taken at the human-piloted ships. Just watch."

"Star Strike to All That Shines, you and your flock pilots did good back there." There was no way Commander Madison could have been anything but blissfully ignorant of the conversations that had been muted on All That Shines side of the screen and of all the groaning and laughter his compliment caused over there.

Commander Smith unmuted Stella's outgoing hails. "All That Shines to Sunrock Base Command, hows things down there?"

"Base Operator Davis here, commander. We have taken no damage, its all been target practice. Those buggers were fast and actually dodged a good number of missiles after hitting us with some interference. Daisy couldn't target them reliably for awhile and neither could her lesser subordinate installations, but we got some cleared out by human hand and eye. We ended up with a good kill count between man and Daisy. Consider them deleted....Sir, is Angel-L.I.N.E -"

Angel-L.I.N.E dropped her link gate nodes' shielding back down to normal levels and drew more power from her generators to execute one final defense protocol.

"Star Strike to Angel Linkway System, there weren't any ships left behind when we gated in. Why are you reopening the link ways? Please don't tell me that you are glitching and trying to send us back. We aren't done here...."

"I don't think she is glitching, I remember seeing-" Carmen was interrupted by Angel-L.I.N.E.

"Commanders Madison and Smith, I am sending you and your ships my targeting and trajectory data. Please be advised to stay away from the indicated areas."

"What, you want us to reposition when we...never mind we will try it your way, whatever that is....Commander Smith is this okay? You know your local artificials better than I do."..."Star Strike to Wrath of Sol, move out of the marked areas. Lets not find out the wrong way what the AI here is doing." The humans moved their warship fleet the bare minimum distance needed to stay out of Angel-L.I.N.E's way, clearly unhappy to have to move out of range of their target and not fully trusting her capabilities.

"She knows what she is getting done, Commander Madison.", Smith assured him. "Operative Sexton, Stella...one of you move us out."

Carmen already had her fingers posed to take from Stella control of the helm, but Stella had her beat by a split second, only to get overridden so fast that it took her receiving a notice from her own system to even perceive it. Did the human already have suitable emergency coordinates inputted before Angel-L.I.N.E even warned anyone to get out of harm's way?

Soon all ships except the target found themselves a safe distance away where they waited to witness some action. Smith took the opportunity to send out a ship wide not-so emergency alert as he switched the view on monitors throughout All That Shines to a live feed that had video of Top's Will front and center complete with audio from Stella's bridge to compliment it.

Diego stood up and unsheathed the claws of his metal gloves in dramatic fashion as he gazed out of his visor at screens filling with the growing glow of gate nodes. "You know what to do, girl. Just-"

"Rip and Tear until it is done!" Commander Smith and Carmen joined in to finish Diego's line alongside him. Cheers and roars broke forth from jumping, high-fiving, hand-throwing, and chest-bumping humans throughout All That Shines along with other not so discernible expressions.

"I might just do that if I say so myself." Angel-L.I.N.E looked out at Top's Will with her cameras and other sensors and rescanned its surface. At an average of around 15% shielding across the board and even less in some sections, there were enough suitable spots to get started on its vulnerable outer hull. Picking four targets, all she needed to do was wait ten more seconds. Her system's chain of link gate nodes were almost ready at 90% of their power ratings. "This is going to feel so satisfying."

Commencing....

[]

[]

[]

[]...

One by one, pair by pair, the nodes reached maximum power. Chains of energy formed between points on and near the gigantic alien vessel, caressing sections of ship hull along their beginnings and ends, metal flesh tenderly grasped as if between Angel-L.I.N.E's fingers.

"What the freaking fuck?!" Commander Madison cursed with little choice but to see how this would turn out.

"Here we go...." With no care for the human's shock, Angel-L.I.N.E let loose a great pulse of energy from the link way, the AI's euphoria levels soaring as the brilliance of such erupted in flashes of light marking the stabilization of newly formed warp bubbles.

"Was that nice? It starts out with a gentle touch of energy and blooms with beauty, but...." Shields fluctuated and failed as the phenomenon completed itself, rending and shaking away with shocks and twists parts of the four targeted areas of the intruder as it flattened and expanded the space around it.

"Now that you are open to the experience...." She sensed the prey vessel rock slightly, the venting of atmosphere and the internal explosions shaking it only adding to her excitement as she aligned more link way nodes, each exposure revealing an increasing amount of ship ripe for the ripping and tearing as she sank in even more chains to claw away floors, walls, and ceilings of xeno design. From top to bottom and left to right, the whole ship contorted and broke away until it was on the verge of collapse.

"Why-er what?" A visibly confounded and disturbed Madison shifted in his seat as more cussing filled Angel-L.I.N.E's live feeds from the warships of Wrath of Sol.

"I am...snuffing the 'abomination' out." The AI laughed coldly, her spiteful circuits delighting as she activated every single node in her network to grab the hated starship with all of them at the same time, shattering what remained into cosmic dust; the cloud of fragments glittering in the explosion like a giant celebratory firework. "...I go all the way."

Commander Smith stood on Stella's bridge with a big smile on his face and slow-clapped to the cheering that could once again be heard throughout All That Shines. "Good job Angel-L.I.N.E, good job. And good show. Same for all you in Wrath of Sol. Thank you. That will not be the last of them, but we are fine for now. We will be ready."

"You're welcome, but such a show and such readiness is all our duty." Commander Madison had regained his composure, a calm demeanor obscuring any obvious signs of remaining shock.

"Such duty is life." Angel-L.I.N.E added with pleasure and a sense of satisfaction as she gave the battlefield one final scan. Caution might have been a good excuse for a very observant AI such as herself, but committing to memory every blown bit of a dealt with threat as it settled into the backdrop of her space among her other precious pretties was the greater motivation.

Smith let loose a chuckle and grinned widely. "The duty to show them that if they fuck around, they find out."

With that, Angel-L.I.N.E soon found herself resuming her normal protective vigil; watching diligently as Zan, Stella, the fleet of Wrath of Sol, and their human crews headed for Sunrock Base where every calculation would be performed and every manner of action taken to keep those words true. All was as it should be.