The Privateer

"Warmaster, the derelict is within firing range." The call came over the main radio channel. "Still no sign of the humans."

Yvian stared out of the viewport at the ships they were approaching. The ships were still too far away to be more than shiny blips in the distance, but she knew what was out there. Dead Xill vessels, Quig battlecruisers and Mig fighters and a single twenty kilometer Yig destroyer. They formed a scattered perimeter around a ring of crystals. The crystals were large, nearly the size of a battlecruiser. There were nine, and they were heavily damaged. In the center of the crystals was an upside down diamond. The Crystal Mother.

"They fled our approach, most likely." Warmaster Scathach mused. "The humans would not have kept a large fleet here. They would've been fools to face us." He gave a disappointed grunt. "Fighter wings one through six, advance ahead and check for mines or traps. Fighter wings nine through fourteen, check the other side of the planet. All other ships, continue current course."

Slowly but surely, the Crystal Mother came into view, surrounded by the broken remains of Xill vessels. The derelict ship had been damaged the first time Yvian saw it. It was in far worse shape now. Entire sections of its hull had been removed. One of the crystals surrounding it was shattered, and another was visibly cracked. The faint glow usually emitted by Lucendian ships was all but absent. Yvian could almost feel the ships fear. Its pain. She imagined she could hear it screaming.

"Anyone else feel that?" Mims asked. She was using the radio channel reserved for the Priderender's bridge crew.

"It's calling for help," said Lissa. "It wants to be saved."

"Or killed," Mims agreed.

"Interesting." The Warmaster remarked. "I didn't know you could communicate with Lucendian ships at this range. Scarrend believed you require physical contact to use your implants."

"We do," Yvian told him. "I can sense what she's feeling, but I can't talk to her without touching a control node." She gazed at the tortured hulk. "Bright Lady. What did they do to you?"

After confirming that the humans were gone and there were no obvious traps, the lead ship from fighter wing four entered the Crystal Mother. Once inside, the ship's computers came back online. Sensors confirmed that a hundred and three Federation vessels were accelerating away from the planet as fast as they could go. It was calculated they had left a mere five hours ago.

"Should we give chase?" Scarrend suggested. "A few thousand battlecruisers should be more than enough."

Warmaster Scathach started to shake his head, then changed his mind. "Proceed. I suspect the humans will escape the anti-tech field before we can catch them, but trying will cost us little."

The rest of the fleet continued its steady approach. Another fighter landed, disgorging a small horde of armored Vrrl to search the Lucendian vessel. They didn't get very far. Less than a minute after the search began, a flash of light snapped Yvian's gaze back to the viewports. An explosion. A big one. A quarter of the Crystal Mother's hull had shattered. The Lucendian vessel's pain was so sharp it dropped Yvian to her knees. The shock gave way to horror as her helmet's HUD flicked back to life.

The anti-tech field was down. The Lucendian ship was either too traumatized or too damaged to keep it up. Its kinetic field was out as well, judging from the way the debris scattered in all directions instead of slowing to a stop. But that wasn't important. Only the anti-tech field was important, and the anti-tech field was gone.

The field had been doing a lot of things. It had kept the humans from using their jumpdrives. It kept the Vrrl from scanning the sector. It kept Yvian's voidarmor from making her life easier. The most important thing the field had done was keep the Vore inert. An entire planet full of the things waited a mere twelve thousand kilometers from the Crystal Mother. A mountain of nanomachines stretched eight thousand kilometers from the surface, reaching towards the Lucendian ship. The mountain had been frozen in that stretch for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. It wasn't frozen anymore.

Warmaster Scathach didn't wait for a report. His voice boomed through the main fleet radio. "Fire Annihilators! All weapons engage! Get to the crystal ships!"

Silver tendrils lashed out from the Vore world, latching on to the fighters closest to the planet. The ships self destructed, exploding into spheres of plasma. More plasma rained down from the Vrrl fleet. Ion Roar Cannons sent columns of bright white ion scything into the mass reaching for the Crystal Mother. To Yvian's surprise, the ion actually slowed the Vore down. Either the Vore hadn't activated their shields yet, or the grasping mountain of nanomachines had reached past their coverage. Eight thousand Roarcannons brought the Vore to a shuddering halt, frying billions of the things and buying a few precious seconds.

It was a trick that wouldn't work twice. Partly because the Vore would adapt, but mostly because the Roarcannons would need eight whole minutes to recharge. Win or lose, there was no way this fight would last long enough to use them again. Still, they did their job. The Vore had been halted a mere six hundred kilometers from the Crystal Mother. Seven hundred kilometers from the Vrrl fleet, who were now accelerating away as fast as they could.

The Priderender's sensors registered a massive emission of energy. The Cascade Annihilators had struck the Vore. Warmaster Scathach pulled up a holodisplay, revealing a surge of orange racing down the Vore wave. On the planet itself, circles of orange light were expanding, chain reactions moving hundreds of kilometers a second. The fleet was still firing every turret they had, but the torrent of plasma was nothing compared to the cascade of burning light consuming the Vore.

"Warmaster," the third Hsst of the Priderender reported, "A mass of Vore has detached from the other side of the planet. They are attempting to flee the effect."

"They are too late," said the Warmaster. As he spoke, the Vore planet expanded, superheated matter rippling outward. The planetary nova caught the Vore, shorting out shields and smashing into the mass of them. Sensor readings showed temperatures hotter than most stars, and electromagnetic radiation on a scale that put solar flares to shame. The nanomachines would be shorted out and melted down at the same time. "We must reach the Crystal Mother before it is too late for us as well."

"Radiation is damaging our shields," the Third Hsst reported. "We're at ninety three percent."

"We can't drop shields to touch the ships." The Warmaster growled. "Ready the cables. One destroyer per Lucendian vessel. The Priderender will take the center. "Carriers and fighters, move away from the planet. All other ships, maintain position. Keep firing on the Vore."

They'd destroyed the Gate knowing they would have to use jumpdrives to bring the Lucendian ships back. The original plan had called for the Priderender to attach itself to the Crystal Mother, and string cables between it and the surrounding crystal obelisks. Then they'd have Yvian interface with the Mother, hit the Vore planet with annihilators, and drop the anti-tech field long enough to jump out. It was a dangerous gambit, but Mims and Scathach had been sure it could work.

The humans had blown that plan to hell, the motherless sons. They must have set explosives in the Mother, and either set a timer or remote detonated as soon as the Vrrl fleet drew close. It was madness. They knew the Vrrl were using jumpdrives. It was the only way they could reach this sector. Killing the Mother was bad, but luring the Vrrl fleet close, first? Even humans couldn't be that stupid. Could they?

"They don't know the Vore can communicate," Scarrend remarked. He must have picked up on Yvian's convoy of thought. "It's the only explanation."

"Not necessarily," Mims disagreed. "Their commander could just be stupid."

"Destroyers are in position," one of the crew reported.

"Sync jumpdrives and link activation to my console," the Warmaster ordered. "Send hunters to touch cables to the Lucendians. No one is to reach more than two appendages through the shields."

"Warmaster, the effect is expanding rapidly," another crewman cut in. "It will be on us in forty two seconds."

Scathach growled and pushed a button. He pushed another button for general broadcast. "Jumpdrives activated. Thirty seconds." Yvian found herself holding her breath. If the cables weren't attached before the jumpdrives activated then all of this was for nothing. The Crystal Mother would be lost forever. "All other vessels, evacuate."

Yvian could feel the familiar hum of the jumpdrive through the soles of her voidboots. The mass of burning metal that used to be a planet continued to expand. The hum reached a crescendo as the countdown ended. Then the hum continued.

Again, Scathach didn't wait for a report. "All power to jumpdrives now!" The superheated plasma that used to be a planet rushed towards the Priderender. The hum of the drive grew louder still. Yvian noticed the Priderender's shields were down to sixty four percent. Sixty one percent. Forty percent. The cry of the Crystal Mother intensified, fear and pain and anguish so great Yvian fell once again. In a flash of insight, she realized why the drive wasn't working. The Crystal Mother was absorbing the quantum fields.

"Let go!" Yvian shouted. She projected her emotions with an intensity born of desperation. "Stop fighting! Let us help!"

Yvian would never know if her shout reached the ship, if the increased radiation overwhelmed the Mother's absorption, or if the Priderender's power increase stabilized the Jumpfield. Whatever the case, the Jump Effect finally took hold. Swirling blue light filled the viewports.

Yvian stayed on hands and knees, panting. The Mother was still weeping, but the fear slowly ebbed. Lissa was down on the deck, as well. Mims had stayed standing, but clenched fists and shaking legs told her he felt it, too. Seconds passed. Her breathing slowed. Bit by bit, Yvian unclenched her trembling body.

The swirling blue of the Gate Effect ended. Yvian raised her head enough to glance at the Warmaster's console. Shields were at eleven percent.

"We have exited the Gate," a crewman reported. "All Lucendian vessels accounted for."

Yvian let out a pained grunt as she climbed to her feet. A headache was spreading through the base of her skull. She watched Scathach look over a scan of the sector. There wasn't much here. No stations. No ships besides the fleet exiting the Gate. Not even a star. Just a trio of Gates scattered across the void.

"Where are we?" she asked.

Mims answered. "An unclaimed sector on the edge of Vrrl space. It's on the other side of them from the Federation. We're pretty sure Reba doesn't have coordinates to it."

"Hail the Bloodborn," Warmaster Scathach commanded. "Get a status report."

"No response," his Fourth Hsst reported. A few seconds later, she said, "The Bloodborn and the Throatripper are destroyed. No survivors aboard the Lucendian ship."

"They died for the Empire." Scathach let out a growl that was almost a sigh. "They will be remembered." He took a deep breath. "Send out our hunters. Search the ship. Instruct the other destroyers to do the same. I doubt the humans only planted one bomb."