Chapter 349

349 The Defense of Sorallus, Pt The cruiser’s bridge was now almost completely dark, with only a few deep red lights shining in the corners. There was just enough to outline everyone’s edges, but not much more. Every screen all around was completely blacked out and filled with the same error message, from the various wall screens to the technician terminals.

Even the captain’s chair’s screens were filled with the error.

–

Authority Removed

–

“What in the nine hells is going on?” the captain cried out. “Can anyone explain what’s happening here?”

“No idea, sir,” replied one of his techs.

“Well made a goddamned guess!”

“I, uh, am assuming that whoever boarded has taken control of the cruiser, sir.”

.....

The captain slammed a fist on his chair out of frustration and anger.

“That’s impossible!” he cried out. But at the same time, the reality of it set in. The proof of it was all around him.

How anyone could have taken over an entire cruiser with only a single boarding party was far beyond his ability to understand. In the end, he convinced himself that the Hegemony must have used some secret disabling weapon once they got onboard.

“At least we sealed every bay before we lost control,” said a tech.

As the murmurs began to spread all around the bridge, heavy thuds came from the main security door that led into the bridge. Many immediately turned towards it, and watched with horror as the very middle of the door began to warp and bubble inward.

While it warped, a sliver of light shot through as the middle split open. It widened as the door was beat on more and more. Then suddenly, the thudding stopped.

Numerous power armored fingers slipped through the now-large gap in the middle, and pulled from both sides. With a heave, they slid open the doors, and bright light splashed through.

A half dozen Republic commandos ran through with their weapons high. They fanned out as they scanned everyone all around them. And despite the darkness, their armor could easily see through multiwave optical sensors.

The image was so clear to each of them that they could easily see the surprised and awed faces of everyone on the bridge.

Freya came in right after them, walked close to the center of the bridge, and right up to the captain. Her armor’s glowing lavender lines pierced through the darkness and bathed him in their soft light.

“This ship now belongs to the Corvus Republic,” she told him. “Surrender.”

“O-or what?” the captain muttered in response. Unease and uncertainty were deep in his voice.

“You have no other choices to make.”

The captain clenched his jaw – it was true. He was practically powerless. All control had been ripped away from him, and the ship that he once proudly commanded now looked more like a cell. Or even a tomb.

“Can I get your assurances that no harm will come to any of us?” he asked.

“No I can’t assure you,” Freya replied. “It’s a long way from now to eternity, and anything could happen between now and then. But I can assure you that we won’t harm anyone in our custody.”

All emergency lights winked off just as the normal bridge lights came back on. Many of the bridge technicians winced from the sudden change, and instinctively shielded their eyes.

Their eyes widened as their focus came back to being, and as Raijin floated up from the floor right in front of the captain next to Freya.

She had traveled, physically, through the cruiser itself. Although she had initially sunk herself deep into the ship to perform her Machine Trance, found she had no reason to remain that way.

Raijin could simply multitask as before, and act through a nanite body while also acting through the cruiser’s systems at the same time.

So, her swarm swam through the circuits, past the polysynth insulation, and between the titanium and carbon substructures. She poured out between the molecular gaps and reformed into her default form as she came up from the floor.

Many of the Federation technicians were filled with fear and awe as they recognized the two of them.

“Freya,” some said, softly.

“Raijin,” muttered others.

It had been a long time since they saw them. They still kept up with their omnicast, illegally. It was only available through the pirates’ FreeNet, which meant they had to smuggle in copies of their escapades whenever they could.

Although their ‘Cast had long since evolved, many still continued to watch. Where it was once about the Ravens’ escapades, it had become about the various people of their Republic, and all the wonderful and varied worlds they visited.

Those who had watched from the beginning, when they were still on SolNet, kept on watching because they wanted to get a glimpse of the Ravens, to see them in action once again.

They most certainly got their wish, in a way. Here were two of them in the flesh. Metaphorically speaking, anyway.

The ones who recognized the two immediately hopped up from their terminals with their hands in the air.

“We surrender!” some cried out.

“Don’t kill us,” said others.

“If you need to,” said someone, quietly, “feel free to knock me out.”

The captain was aghast at what he was seeing and hearing from many of the technicians around him. They gave up without a hint of a fight – not that he was considering it in the slightest. The two in front of him exuded a certain strength that he knew he couldn’t overcome.

Raijin turned as she floated towards Freya.

“We have complete control,” she said. “Crews are locked into their zones with zero access to the system. We have free reign to do what we need.”

She then gestured towards the door that Freya’s squad had wrenched open.

“Speaking of which,” she continued, “I could have easily opened that for you.”

“We got a bit excited,” was all Freya could say. “Honestly, we just couldn’t resist.”

“Mhm.”

“Well, we’d better get to cleanup duty. This cruiser’s crawling with Feds. You gonna be alright up here?”

Raijin simply nodded, then gestured for the captain to get out of his seat. When he did, she took his place. Though instead of settling into it, she hovered in the air just above it.

As she did so, every single terminal and screen flipped back on.

Many of the live feeds around the cruiser showed the battered Federation interception fleet. Or at least, what remained of it. And it showed the cruiser’s guns pounding round after round into them.

The captain and his technicians were in awe at what they were seeing.

“We’ll leave you to your fun, then,” she said. “Captain. I think it’s time you were acquainted with your own brig.”

Outside, Lucifer’s envelopment swarmed around what was left of the Federation ships – they still had two cruisers, a half dozen destroyers, and about 20 frigates. The dead trailed behind them and were little more than empty, crumpled, burning husks that floated pointlessly in space.

Not that it was looking good for whoever was left – the Hegemony continually bombarded them from all sides, and wore away at them slowly but surely.

Even worse, one of their own hammered away at them, and ate at them from the inside.

While Lucifer’s fleet spun around the Federation ships on the outside, Raijin spun in the inside. She lashed out with every weapon she had available to her, and tore the enemy to pieces.

Heavy beam cannons lacerated their armor and gouged them deeply with every pass. They left red-hot trenches across their hulls. But before they could cool, she followed them up with AA and minigun fire that pock-marked and dented the softened sheets of amor.

Then, she fired her missiles and heaviest cannons at the already-weakened armor, and blasted them apart with absurd ease. Entire sheets were blown apart and thrown asunder from the various forces that battered them.

The structure beneath was also heavily warped and torn open from the vicious blasts, which exposed multiple decks to open space. Many surprised crew were thrown out into the void, where they froze to death in the cold dark.

Others were blown apart by the numerous explosions that resulted from the various systems getting ripped open.

Although the Federation frigates were easily ripped apart by the barrage that came at them from all sides, it was the destroyers that suffered the most.

Their most devastating gun was forward-facing only, and their broadsides only had smaller caliber weapons designed purely for defense. They were practically useless as their fleet was torn apart all around them.

“Send another communication to that blasted cruiser!” cried one of the destroyer captains. “Tell them their systems are targeting us!”

“We’ve sent them, sir!” one of his officers replied. “But we haven’t gotten anything at all in response!”

“What in the hells?! Did they turn their coats on us? Fire back on the traitors then, dammit! Tear them apart!”

“We’re doing that, captain!” cried out one of his technicians. “But our miniguns aren’t doing anything to their armor. And we ain’t got any bigger guns than those...”

The captain grimaced as his destroyer shook violently around him. Another massive shell had struck them on their port side, and split open a few more decks.

Numerous red alerts scrolled past his screens, and revealed all manner of breaches and fires and explosions happening across his destroyer.

“Then ram ’em!” the captain cried out. “Shift angle, overcharge thrusters, and slam us right into those bastards! We might be going down, but we’re not going down quietly!”

The Federation destroyer immediately followed the captain’s command, and adjusted their flight angle. Its maneuvering thrusters flared out brightly as its nose angled further towards Raijin’s cruiser. And once they had the right trajectory, poured every bit of energy they had into their main engines.

Their rear thrusters lit up and flared out as they jumped forward with a burst of speed. They aimed their nose straight at the middle of the cruiser and steadied themselves as they sped up faster and faster.

The captain’s heart thumped heavily in his chest as they approached, certain he would do tremendous damage to the cruiser’s hull.

But his heart fell as he watched the cruiser’s largest guns point themselves in his direction.

And fired.

The first massive shell hit the destroyer’s rail cannon barrel, and jammed itself tight as it tore it slightly apart. The force of the hit traveled through the barrel itself, and shook the ship violently. It was so powerful that the very end of the barrel pushed inward, and completely crushed the gunnery room deep inside the ship.

More than that, it fractured the structure that surrounded it, and began to split the destroyer apart from the inside.

When Raijin fired a second time, she struck the first slug she lodged into it, and sent another massive vibration down the barrel.

This time, it was enough to completely rip the destroyer’s structure apart, as the barrel itself collapsed in on itself. The different pieces flung out in every direction, forcibly separated by the sheer kinetic energy of the hit.

Moments later, the destroyer exploded ingloriously and was torn apart from the inside.

.....