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Chapter 80

Ishan stood on the bridge following the Lt.’s order to integrate their tactics and positions with Jishin’s fleet of fast-attack ships. They needed to be ready to extricate the stranded crew from the Caravel and to defend the Brigantine should an undead attack force present itself during extraction.

Pleasantly, much of what Ishan had thought he would need to explain had been unnecessary.

“Consider yourself recruited, Petty Officer Jishin.” Ishan intoned.

“Rest assured, Senior Chief. I promise you, it’s not our first time beyond our own Sol. We will avoid your attack lanes and be ready to support when so ordered.” Jishin tilted his head and looked up at Ishan from below his brows. “If you don’t mind me sayin’, it’ll be a breath of fresh air to follow Lieutenant Nang’s operational plans. Dezain’s command structure was rather... loose—if y’know what I mean. The crew of the Brigantine is a solid one. What we’ve been lacking is capable leadership, and for too long.”

Ishan kept his thoughts to himself. The Kaizuko, despite being pirates under a clan-organized hierarchy, had a good reputation for organized and effective starmanship and well-maintained fleets, if little else. While they followed a colorful code of behavior concerning conduct toward other ships and proper targets for raiding, they were familiar with the discipline required to keep a tight ship running.

Concerning the Lt., for as brief as he expected her command of the Brigantine to be, the Kaizuko crew would disrespect her or her orders at their own peril. The Caravel’s fate was evidence enough that no warning from Ishan should be necessary and if they could benefit from her leadership, more and better for all.

Jishin leaned into Ishan’s hearing and lowered his voice as a crooked smile rose on the left half of his face. “She reminds me of a commander I knew when I was young m’self— Attention! Officer on the bridge!”

Ishan internally admired the Kaizuko bridge crew’s instant response to Jishin’s call. They stood rigidly straight, right fists pressed to their chests as Alysa, wearing a freshly scavenged EVA, entered the bridge flanked by Lobo.

The crew just might survive their encounter with the Lt.

She returned their salute, and they got back to their tasks. “Senior Chief, how goes integration?”

“Very well, ma’am. They are acquaint—”

A communication attendant interrupted Ishan. “Sir! Scores of hyper-space windows are opening within two-hundred kilo-klicks distance of our patrol perimeter. Numerous ships are now arriving in our sector. Spread range. Minus forty-five to positive fifty-eight degrees X and minus twenty to positive forty-five degrees Y from ship center. The largest is a Dreadnaught class. All are capital ships and have begun deploying smaller attack-sized craft with energy signatures that suggest very simple design and propulsion systems—”

“Battle stations! Seal all segments of the ship! Launch all attack craft!” Jishin shouted, his face growing redder by the second as he listened to his bridge attendant’s recitation.

The stakes had significantly increased.

A capital ship was any ship that could field a minimum of twenty fighter vessels and in this Essence rich portion of the galaxy would be captained by at least, a singly-Attuned Cultivator.

A Dreadnaught, on the other hand, was another thing entirely.

Captained by tri-Attuned Cultivators at a minimum, Dreadnaughts were planet-killers. The battleship was a mobile fortress fifty kilometers long and 18 kilometers wide. They were capable of spearheading entire invasions of mundane star systems and whose primary purpose was to anchor the center of an attacking fleet with a stable position in a forward battle area. Armor hardened with multitudes of long range hard hitting fire power. No sane force of lesser power chose to confront a Dreadnaught directly.

Its hull was sleek and angular. In this area of the galaxy it was likely crafted from Essence-infused composite materials that offered both durability and protection for the fleet’s elite leaders and hard to replace personnel. The ship possessed multiple sensor arrays, retractable energy shield generators, A quick inspection of the Brigantine’s sensor readouts on long range scans of the Dreadnaught confirmed Alysa’s suspicions that the builders had not skimped on the materials. The outer hull was further reinforced by high frequency EM shielding and adaptive nanomaterial plating capable of deflecting high-energy plasma and laser weaponry. The massive battleship’s prominent command tower was nothing of the sort, but was a simple fortified bridge seated safely inside the heart of the massive vessel hull.

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Perhaps more impressive than its defenses were its weaponry, as—at the end of the day, the ship was meant to be used as a hammer to smash opposing forces. It was armed with 12 heavy plasma cannons, arranged in four rotating turrets, firing superheated plasma projectiles that could penetrate most known mundane shields and armor. Eight railgun arrays, each capable of firing hyper-velocity projectiles over vast distances, were mounted along the lengths of the ship for broadside engagements. Thirty-two missile pods were also spread across its hull, capable of launching a variety of guided missiles including high-explosive, EMP, and nuclear warheads. Each missile was equipped with advanced targeting systems that could deliver their devastating payloads unerringly. The Dreadnaught also fielded forty point-defense laser turrets designed to intercept incoming missiles as well as small craft—and the Dreadnaught had these capabilities across each of the nine-hundred square kilometers of its hull.

Anyone seeing the ship would have no problem seeing it for what it was, a blunt and crushing weapon of war.

However, none of these capabilities gave the Dreadnaught its capacity as a planet-killer. In fact, the vessel’s ability to destroy the biosphere of a planet had nothing to do with advanced weaponry at all and everything to do with physics being a terrifying bitch. The standard procedure for a Dreadnaught in wiping out a terrestrial biosphere was to locate a comet or asteroid that was approximately between two and five percent of the vessel's size, latch onto it with gravitational grapnels and simply drag and release the natural missile.

And now the Brigantine had one of these bastards in its backyard.

Alysa looked to Ishan and Lobo and the hints of a cocky smile touched her lips as she crossed one arm over her body and grasped her elbow in a shoulder stretch. “Looks like the party is starting. Are you two ready for some void combat?”

Both Affins stood straight and slammed their fists to their chests, but it was Ishan who spoke for them. “Yes Ma’am! Always and ever.”

She called to Jishin as she sped past, Ishan and Lobo following close on her heels. “Helmsman, you have command of the Brigantine and its defenses. We’re going to be getting up close and personal on our X-Wing kits.”

They ran from the room to the bridge's Ancillary hangar, adjusting their helmets and activating the seals of the EVA’s for the void. Lt. Nang had snapped her X-wing foil expansion frame into place and Ishan moved to follow her lead when a flashing red screen filled the visual head’s up screen of his EM static faceplate. Two words that seemed of ancient origin based on their similarity to words he knew the meaning of in the current galactic common language’s lexicon:

“ANTIM DICTARE”

“ANTIM DICTARE”

“ANTIM DICTARE”

The words continued to flash in broad capital letters and then their kit’s Intelligence unit spoke.

Belay launch Lieutenant. There is something of dire consequence that we must speak of.

Ishan looked at Alysa Nang through the static field of their face plates but her face mirrored the perplexed emotions he felt.

“...Enemy forces are converging on our position as we speak, Intelligence— can’t we delay–” Intelligence’s voice cut off Alysa in an iron tone that left no room for debate.

“I’m afraid not. The significance of the forces you are facing has far greater ramifications that you can possibly know.”

* * * * *

Alarm klaxons had begun ringing throughout the ship as Lt Nang, Ishan, and Lobo ran for the bridge’s ancillary hangar.

“Aye, aye, ma’am.” Jishin responded to her last words and saluted all three, for what might be the last time. He and his staff held the honorary gesture until the three were off the bridge.

They were headed where they belonged. A battle was starting in the void, and they were space marines.

As they moved through the portal Jishin dropped his salute and got back to his fight. The helmsman pointed to the center bridge, “Get the three-dimensional display of the battle space up so we can see the maw of this beast that wants to swallow us!”

The void logistics attendant waved her hand, and a hologram materialized. It showed over one hundred capital vessels surrounding the Brigantine in 60 percent of a spherical deployment. The Dreadnaught sat roughly in the center of the squadron. All the ships were deploying smaller craft in neat rows. They were arranged in what looked like the harpoon line his ancient ancestors used to capture abyssal leviathans.

“Sir, an emergency transmission is coming under Battle Leader Tojaku’s command code.”

Jishin furrowed his brow. As worthless as Jian Tojaku was, Jishin had hoped that Tojaku and his clansmen had turned rutter and sped back to the Kotei when this mess started. Sadly, the fates didn’t seem to have been so kind.

“Put it through to my station,” Jishin muttered darkly.

The mummified visage of Kyon Shi appeared over a display pedestal in front of Jishin’s command chair.

The undead croaked in his dry voice, “Helmsman Shiruba, I claim your ship and your crew as rightful debt owed me by your former commander Ritoru Dezain. As you can tell by the size of my fleet, you have no hope of victory. The result, whether you fight or surrender, will be the same. My victory. Your death.

“You, however, are positioned to save me significant time and expense. For the service of surrendering, I will provide you the same benefits I did to Ritoru Dezain and his lieutenants. Advancement of your Cultivation and allowance for you and a dozen of your crew to serve me as living spirit beings aboard this Brigantine for as long as you perform well.” The undead let a moment tick by. “What say you?”

Jishin rolled his eyes to the upper right and considered his words before he spoke.

A handful of beats went by before he narrowed his eyes. “You have given me the courtesy of speaking plainly. As my father, void rest his soul, taught me, I will pay you the same courtesy. The difference between Dezain and the rest of us aboard is that we remember that this here ship belongs to the Kotei. It’s we as have the privilege of serving him aboard her, but perhaps I’m being hasty. Let me ask the crew, and I will abide by the decision of those I would pick as my twelve under your offer.” Jishin waved a hand and brought a young female attendant from a nearby station over to Kyon Shi’s view.

She had the bloom of youth on her cheeks and every reason to want to live.

“Attendant Norikumi, you heard the offer. Should we take it?”

Without missing a beat, she stood at rigid attention and confirmed what Jishin had already known of all the clansmen aboard. “Rot his offer! And his ugly ass, sir!”

A smile lit up Jishin’s face, his tone was cheery as he continued, “Well, there you have it! If hell is willing to take one such as yourself, we will see you there, whether we get there a’fore ye or not. Rot your ugly ass!”

A dark glare of hatred filled Kyon Shi’s dead eyes as he replied in a still voice, “Very well, helmsman. I understand that the Kaizuko organizational structure is based loosely on shared previous biological ancestors. As such, you’ll be glad to hear that I’m reuniting you with your clansmen from battle leaders Tojaku and Yabana as we speak.” The energy drainer raised a finger, and the commlink was cut.

“Sir, sensors show hundreds of the deployed attack fighters are powering up engines and moving into attack position.”

Jishin acknowledged with a nod and got ready for death to rain on his Brigantine.

Still, the feeling of pride in being a Kaizuko maintained a determined gleam in his eye. It was far better to die fighting with those he loved than to live a thousand lives after betraying them.