The Righteous Fury screamed on the edge of a fast burn.
Mae mimicked the distress on the human faces around her. Zula Hendricks’s stern resolve. The clenched teeth of Major Yoo. Lieutenant Rossi’s streaming eyes beneath her dark, curly hair. All were models of stress and concern that went into her algorithm.
Human bodies, even trained and in their g-chairs as the bridge crew were, could not survive long exposure to extreme gravitational forces. Anything over six Gs was dangerous for extended amounts of time. Organs would get crushed and blood vessels would burst if they didn’t soon pull out of such extreme acceleration.
The drug rig snapped into place on Mae’s right. It was ready to administer the doses needed to keep the crew conscious and alive should the gravity well’s demands be too extreme. The needle would puncture her skin but not provide her synthetic system with anything of value. Being an android in hiding was a complex thing.
Not that anyone but EWA and Erynis would notice in this moment as the Fury darted through the planet’s debris field. Some ancient moon tumbled too close to the planet, and now Zula hoped its scattered remains would provide limited cover for her ship.
Their horseshoe-shaped pursuer didn’t seem bothered, though. The effects of the gravity well did not slow it down. Their attempt to feign damage and ignorance did not fool it, and it was not about to let them escape its wrath. Mae watched the display, waiting for it to come about. What weapons would this alien ship unleash?
The craft appeared to have no engines, nor a front or a rear. It didn’t need to alter course to change trajectory. It glided forward with no evidence of propulsion at all. Its speed was unnerving, as if gravity simply didn’t apply to it.
“Boss.” Yoo addressed Zula in a calm tone. “That thing is closing fast. No sign of this rock debris making any more of a difference than metal.”
“Missiles worked on the one at Shānmén.” Zula’s eyes flickered to Mae. “Hit it with a barrage.”
Mae slid her fingers over the controls. A trio of XIP-34B Hornet SSMs burst from the port side of the Fury and darted back towards their assailant. Zula leaned forward in her chair as their trajectory played out on the main screen before them.
The barrage got close, at least. The missiles’ trajectory brought them near the port side of the U-shaped ship. Then, a few hundred meters from the target, they turned away, as if sliding against some unseen surface. Zula’s fist tightened as they diverted and exploded uselessly across the debris field.
“I’m reading that was a small gravitational singularity.” Ross’s voice cracked slightly at this unknown ability making itself apparent.
Mae ran the calculations and missile specifications. They weren’t made to cope with unexpected gravitational fluctuations. No armaments from any of the three galactic powers were, since humanity did not have that technology.
“Our pursuer is exceeding the parameters of known space vessels,” Erynis informed them as calmly as only a synthetic could be in this situation. “EWA can no longer accurately predict its movements.”
“Then concentrate on the debris field,” Zula ground out.
The edge of annoyance in her voice told Mae that EWA’s inability to operate outside her known specifications wasn’t welcome. That was the thing with AI—it operated from a position of confirmed data. With this enemy, there was none. Certain humans actually enjoyed such unknowns, but Zula Hendricks was not one of those people. She’d been chasing Xenomorphs for years and knew a great deal about them. This new ship was only now beginning to show the commander of the Fury what it could do.
This display also might be the last thing they saw.
“Incoming.” Rossi’s words were flat. “Not missiles, ordnance unknown.”
Erynis announced EWA’s reaction. “Deploying thermal countermeasures.”
It was their only choice, even if they didn’t know what was rocketing towards them. Mae dialed into the aft cameras. The shapes were fast-moving and definitely not missiles—or, indeed, any other ordnance in her databases. They were not aerodynamic, but in the vacuum of space that wasn’t required. Then, in a nanosecond, she understood.
The ship fired nothing at them. Instead, it weaponized its gravity well generation to fling the surrounding rock debris at the Fury. In that instant, Mae forgot all her attempts at becoming human. Her synthetic programming became entranced by the technology that made this a reality and the possibilities of what else they might put it towards. It was a pity she’d probably not have time to study it for long, because it was coming up on the Fury fast.
“Evasive maneuvers. Brace, brace.”
EWA’s prime directive was to protect the humans inside her shell. That meant she ran various complicated calculations in the moments before the devices struck. The AI accelerated and turned, trying to bring the ship about to protect the sleeping Jackals in their cryo chambers.
The g-forces increased with these maneuvers. Mae’s mother, Yoo, and Rossi let out strained grunts as it pressed their bodies back into the chairs. EWA automatically shot their systems with drugs to compensate, but they blacked out regardless. Mae slumped back as they did, still mimicking their reactions. Her other senses were more than enough to experience the results of the impact.
The hull rang and shuddered. Alarms screamed, though there was not one human awake to hear them. Rattling indicated the smaller debris bouncing off the side of the ship.
“Decks eighteen to twenty-one compromised,” Erynis reported as the Fury leveled out.
Zula was the first to regain consciousness. “Damage report. Casualties.”
Mae jerked her head up and ran her fingers across the console in front of her. Yoo stirred, but Rossi was still out. “Damage to the port hanger bay. We’ve lost two drop ships. The hull on decks nineteen and twenty is breached, but we haven’t lost any pods. So far.”
Yoo let out a grunt while Zula stayed silent.
“We are losing oxygen on those decks.” Erynis’s eyes flickered, a sure sign that EWA’s immersive processing power was being directed to piloting the ship while trying to keep the Jackals on those decks alive. “We are closing all the relevant hatches.”
“Flinging fucking rocks at us.” Yoo seldom swore, which was as indicative as Erynis’s gestures. “Railguns are still active on the port, boss.”
“Open fire, full spread. Let’s test their defenses to the maximum.”
The rumble of the guns echoed down the Fury’s corridors. The ship was still spinning, which helped create a spiral of fired projectiles.
“Report,” Zula snapped at her daughter.
Without being jacked into the system, the information flow seemed inordinately slow. Mae’s gaze darted across the screen. The spread of incendiary rounds was affected by more defensive gravity well production, but the chaos of their attack appeared harder for the alien ship to knock aside. Whatever it was using was limited in scope or calculating power.
Red hits stacked up on her display. “Impacts on the outer hull on the starboard wing. Twenty-five point three percent of our ordnance made it through.”
Rossi and Yoo let out synchronized shouts of exuberance. Zula did not join them. “How are they taking the damage? Any sign of venting gases?”
Mae punched the display up onto the main screen so her mother could see it herself. If it wasn’t for EWA marking the impacts, they might not have been able to tell at all.
No telltale trails of gas spiraled around the ship, though when Mae enhanced the image, there were definite punctures in the ship’s hull.
“They need some kind of gas to breathe,” Rossi said. “I mean, they must, right?”
“Well, we sure do,” Zula replied. She glanced at Mae, knowing full well that she was the only person on board capable of surviving without oxygen. It’d be some comfort to her, but there were all her Jackals to think of. Her eyes drifted to Yoo. They’d been through so much, and his opinion mattered. “Ronny, thoughts?”
Major Yoo only took a moment to form them. “We go in for a hard burn, ram as much railgun as we can down this thing’s throat—and it’ll have time to throw even bigger rocks at us.”
“Then the Jackals will die out here,” Mae dared to interrupt. “That will not help our mission.”
Yoo shot his other option over his shoulder at his commander. “Or we get some distance and eject the cryopods into planetary atmosphere. We’d lose some, but there is a chance they’d get picked up by someone.”
Zula rubbed her hand over her hair. Her jaw twitched in controlled anger. “EWA, perform evasive maneuvers as best you can. See if you can get some distance between us and that ship. Mae, scan that planet, and let me know if there’s any chance of survival for my Jackals.”
The Fury lurched left and right as the ship’s AI plotted the optimum course through the debris field. Mae finished her task with as much efficiency.
“Plutarch II has a two-hundred-degree surface temperature. The atmosphere is eighty-four percent carbon dioxide, and the surface gravity is 1.8 Earth’s.”
“So no fun expeditions, but they’d have a chance.” Zula gestured at Erynis. “All power to the engines.”
The synthetic responded. “EWA is operating the engines above their recommended levels, and the alien ship is maintaining speed.”
“Fire railguns!”
Mae obeyed, not letting the guns cool, but keeping up continuous fire to dissuade their pursuer. It didn’t work.
“I’m reading a spike in thermal energy in the open section of the ship,” Rossi reported.
It must mean that another gravitational singularity was about to hurl more rocks at the Fury. Mae wondered how she would feel, alone in the vacuum of space. How long would it take for her systems to shut down? Would she go mad before then?
“Incoming!” Yoo yelled, and strangely, he did not sound worried. More… jubilant.
Mae switched to the midsection cameras, and even her synthetic mind could not have predicted what she saw: a mid-sized ship, shaped like a black arrow, darted between the Fury and her attacker. It managed to appear both new in shape and battered and scarred at the same time. It was, however, able to penetrate the gravity shield where rocks and metal could not.
The ship conformed to no known parameters, but as it passed close to the Fury’s sensors, Mae experienced a brand-new feeling. Could it be hope, or maybe relief? She believed the appropriate response would have been a whoop of delight—or at least a smile.
She hoped to have enough time to examine which one it was.
“I’m reading the new arrival is on an attack vector.” Rossi’s fingers ran over her console, bringing the newcomer’s flight to the main screen.
The black ship kept close to their enemy, skirting the edges of the generated gravity well. It concentrated its attack on the small pieces of damage the Fury already did with its railgun. It fired something large and dense into the hull and then appeared to drag it. This fresh attack opened up a large wound in the horseshoe-shaped ship’s side.
Zula leaned forward in her chair. “I want confirmation on this new arrival’s hit. Give me a damage report.”
“Confirmed damage.” EWA zoomed the image in closer to their attacker. “Unable to project impact on their systems, but it seems significant.”
The ship they’d been tracking showed no engine in the front or rear, but it slowed under this fresh attack.
“Bring us about to starboard,” Zula snapped. “Protect the damage we have to our port side. I don’t want us ejecting any cryo escape pods. We’re not losing anyone when we’re this close, but assist with every railgun and missile we still have available.”
Mae sat a little taller. “Yes, ma’am.”
The Fury banked around to the colonel’s command.
“It’s the only scratch put on the damn thing. Make it happen,” Zula said.
The damage to EWA was significant, but the calculations were well within Mae’s parameters, too. She didn’t bother to ask Erynis or the ship’s AI. It took longer for Mae to punch in the coordinates than it took her to work the math.
The new arrival circled back in a graceful arc and gave the bridge crew a view of its weapon. It looked like an old-style anchor someone cobbled together. For an improvised weapon, it was extremely effective.
As the black ship darted away, the Fury’s missiles found the wound. Whatever systems their new ally hit, it must have included the device used to create the gravitational singularity. Opening up a full spread of railguns on their attacker was a beautiful experience. Mae tasted anger tinged with blinding satisfaction.
The enemy ship might not need internal gases, but as their combined attacks tore away a section of hull on the port side, it did irreparable damage to the ship’s structural integrity. Mae joined in the cheer as the ship that they’d chased for so long lost control. Bombarded with the stone debris and unable to deflect it as it had previously done, it shattered and tore apart into pieces of hull. Mae tracked the largest interior piece as the atmosphere of the planet caught it and dragged it down to burn.
The g-chairs released the deck crew, and they all staggered to their feet to observe the destruction. Mae grinned along with Yoo and Rossi. Only Zula Hendricks frowned.
“There goes our lead,” she said with a sigh. “But better them than us.” She pointed towards their savior. “Back to your stations. We have one more thing to find out. Who just rode in and saved our asses? I want to shake their hand and ask them how the hell they did it.”
Mae’s eyes narrowed on the ship.
“Righteous Fury, this is the Blackstar.” The voice broke through on their comms. “Do I have your permission to dock? I’ve been looking for you for a long time.” It sounded male, and slightly cracked. The pilot might be as torn up as his ship.
Zula’s expression shifted to one of caution. Few knew the name of their vessel, but whoever this was, he saved the Jackals.
“Permission granted.” Mae’s mother thumbed the comms button off on her chair. “Let’s roll out the umbilical docking cable for this guy, but slow it down a little. I want a unit of Jackals waiting for his arrival.” She stared out at the vessel, a frown forming. “I like his style, but that doesn’t mean I trust him.”