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Jeck had never seen anything like it.
And he never wanted to see it again.
One minute, Aravusq was there, surrounded by ships and stations, satellites, and the usual items of a spacefaring society.
Then it was encircled by that impossible ring of energy. In a blindingly bright flash, it was gone.
The moons remained. Some of the stations at the Lagrange points, remained. But apart from some detritus, Aravusq was gone.
The ring-ships were slowly collapsing inwards, returning to their single form. If they managed to do that and come all together, they could open a wormhole and leave.
If they departed, they would be able to strike again. Nobody could follow them through the wormhole or determine just where they would come out again into normal space.
Jeck had a very limited amount of attention he could give to the situation with the ring-ships. He was too busy maneuvering the Dawnstrider, either avoiding Ditufgne ships, or, in at least two instances, attacking and keeping them from a larger capital ship.
Tara Kreth had proven a very capable shot, and with Jeck and Lu flying, she used the guns to full effect.
The Dawnstrider had taken no hits, but had been grazed by a few Ditufgne beams. The Multi-Phasic Universal Source Shield Generator allowed their shields to stand-up to those weapons far more effectively than their predecessors had. But they still lost some power and needed to regenerate when grazed by Ditufgne beams.
Still, Jeck had noted the ongoing reports. No matter how hard they hit those ring-ships, they were not taking a lot of damage.
Someone, one of the Xoercerizts, Jeck seemed to think, had explained that it had to do with a combination of the nature of the hulls and their armor, the energy shields, and the unique and incredible power they used to create the ring capable of sending planets instantly to the void between galaxies.
Even with that data, doing whatever it took to stop them was the priority. As they collapsed nearer and nearer to one another, Nevarch Dromm contemplated having ships ram them.
Jeck was rather certain that, even with their tremendous power and armaments, the ring-ships couldn’t stand up to being physically rammed. But he was also fairly certain that the Ditufgne would place themselves between their beloved superweapon and any kamikaze-style attackers.
Jeck had reached a point where the Dawnstrider was positioned with more capable warships between them and the Ditufgne. On the one hand, he was glad, since their purpose was to be there to allow Alvon to remain on top of the situation. One the other hand, as a former fighter pilot with capable weapons and defenses, he wanted to get in there and fight.
“What a madhouse,” remarked Ervik.
“One way or the other, this will go down as the largest battle in history,” commented Lu.
“Deputy Director Gargarm, Nevarch Dromm,” a familiar voice was transmitting. It was Nallatrum, the Xorcerizt leader.
“Alvon.”
“Dromm.”
“Our scientists have been analyzing the ring-ships,” Nallatrum started. “I won’t get into the details of their construction, but the materials are wholly alien to this galaxy. That’s why even our weapons are having difficulty doing any real damage. But we think we have detected a weakness that could be exploited.”
“Don’t hold back,” signaled Dromm. “What is it?”
Though the message was on a separate channel that was kept to command, which included Dromm, Alvon, and another dozen or so leaders, it would still be heard across the entire region. Due to jamming, counter-jamming, and the vast number of starships present, transmissions were broad and open. Unless you had line-of-sight ship-to-ship laser-focused signals, there was no privacy.
“Before the ring-ships have fully collapsed,” Nallatrum said, “they are unable to release all of the pent-up power that went into generating the portal. That can only be done when they return to their single-vessel form. Our scientists think that if a ship can place itself between the ring-ships before they fully collapse, then overload its Multi-Phasic Universal Source Shield Generator output from between them, that will create a harmonic interaction with their power and blow them apart.”
“How do you overload a Multi-Phasic Universal Source Shield Generator?” asked Alvon.
“If someone is physically at the Multi-Phasic Universal Source Shield Generator unit, there is the option to dissipate all of its energy,” stated Nallatrum. “We did not present this to you because the nature of your power systems would never cause the kind of feedback that trigger is meant to shunt harmlessly away. Under normal circumstances, all it would do is drain the Multi-Phasic Universal Source Shield Generator in one go. But our scientists are convinced that, in close proximity between the ring-ships, it would interact with their power and overwhelm them.”
“Why haven’t you sent a ship in to try that?” asked Dromm.
Jeck heard Nallatrum make a sound that he took for a sigh. “Despite our variation of the Multi-Phasic Universal Source Shield Generator being similar to yours, the nature of the shields we employ, as well as our other power systems and the make-up of our hulls, it would not have the desired effect. The nature of the dissipation of power isn’t instantaneous, nor would it create the resonant feedback with Ditufgne power to create the destructive force necessary to damage the ring-ships.”
There was a brief moment of silence, then Alvon said, “Whoever does this is committing suicide.”
“Though the overload itself would not be explosive, the destruction of the ring-ships, and being directly between them all, would likely be.”
“We have another problem,” Dromm stated. “The ring-ships are now too close together for us to get a capital ship in there between them. We have a lot of starfighters, though.”
“But they do not have sufficient mass to generate the harmonic resonant frequency that would be destructive to the ring-ships,” said Nallatrum. “And even if you could coordinate many of them, perfect synchronization of the overload is impossible.”
“A freighter, then,” said Alvon.
Jeck saw it clear as daylight. It had to be the Dawnstrider.
“Alright,” Jeck said. “I’m sorry, everyone, but the greater good of billions is at stake. We can get there before it’s too late. I’m taking us in.”
“Nevarch Dromm, Nallatrum,” Alvon began, “Jeck is taking the Dawnstrider in. We’ll do this.”
“I’m sorry, Ashira,” Jeck said. “I’m sorry, Lii.”
“No, Captain,” Lii said, sounding far older than his eleven years. “The galaxy is counting on us.”
“It has been the best experience of my synthetic life to call you all my family,” said Lu.
Jeck worked out the best course, with the most probability of not engaging Ditufgne starships on the way.
A new signal came through. It was not a voice Jeck had expected to hear. “No, Dawnstrider. This is not the end of your story.”
“Shi’tra?” Jeck signaled.
“The Ravusqan Raider is closer than you are,” Shi’tra said solemnly. “We heard what the Xoercerizts need us to do, and our engineer has it worked out. We’ve got this.”