Terraformer Dreams - Chapter Ten (complete)

[The Zig]

Story so far:
---------------------------------------
Chapter One - The Fly-Through Sector
Chapter Two - Danger is Coming...
Chapter Three - Scramble
Chapter Four - The Nexus
Chapter Five - Classified Information
Chapter Six - Ghosts of the Passed
Chapter Seven - It
Chapter Eight - Terraformer Dreams
Chapter Nine - Downtime
---------------------------------------


Chapter Ten – Frontier

“Regard your fighters as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys. Look on them as your beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War


Part One - Moving on

Jo lifted himself from the pilot seat. His body clicked. In the dim cabin, he looked back to see Lil rising. She was tall; she had to stoop in that tiny Pegasus cabin. Lord knows how Paranid ever fit in these things. Looking at Lil now in this half-light – long, slender limbs, the gentle curve at the bust, slim hips, the boyishly-short blonde hair that now cast her face in shadow, light eyes shining out underneath – Jo was reminded of something from another lifetime. A girl he’d cared for once. In a rush of feeling it all came back. It felt close; like somehow he could still reach over and touch her. Like if he just could get to that place somewhere, and say that right something, he could still pull it back. Pull her back. And a feeling of urgency, like: what’s stopping you? But as quickly a cold reality settled over these illusions, freezing them dead. It was impossible. Politically, emotionally, practically. Just another of those things he’d lost to time.
And what he was left with was an empty hole, an instant, crushing need for Lil. Now. An intense, panic-like feeling that had his hands suddenly shaking.

“What?” she said.
Jo pulled his stare away. “Nothing,” he said, shaking his head to feign tiredness. “Just. Still tired I guess.”
“Tired?”
“Yeah.”
Jo clambered awkwardly around the seat.

“We should report in,” he said.
“You can do that, right? I should get back to my ship.”
“You’re gonna fly back to your ship?”
“Probably easier than walking it,” she stared across at him. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Fine,” Jo said. “Yeah, I’m. Fine.”
Jo pressed against the wall and tried to shuffle around Lil without touching or looking at her. He had to get away – get his head straight. Suddenly she had kissed his cheek.
Jo glanced at her. “Huh?”
“Just, thanks,” Lil said, struggling to hold eye contact.
“What?”
“For... for listening. It was good. Talking to someone.”
“Huh?” Jo stepped past, turning back to face her. It was still difficult to look at her. “No problem. I just wish, I could... that everything wasn’t classified with me. It'd be nice to... share.”
“I think I get it though,” she said.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Probably, more than you know.”
Jo looked at her, confused.
“No!” She said, startled. “I just mean, I think I understand you... where you’re coming from. Like, I get it. That’s all I’m trying to say.”
“Right,” Jo nodded. “Right. I should probably get up to the bridge, so... you know.”
“Yeah.”
“See you later,” he said. It came out sounding like a question.
“Yeah,” Lil said. “Laters.”
Jo opened the exit hatch.
“We could...” Lil said sharply. “Do this again sometime? When this is all over or something. Meet up again somewhere. Relax. Talk. Somewhere there aren’t Xenon shooting at us. We could. Y’know? Right?”
“Yeah,” Jo said. “We could... Yeah.”
“Good,” Lil suddenly smiled at him with a child-like openness.
...


When the elevator doors parted, Jo was met by raised voices.

“How did we take so little shield damage?” The Captain was asking.
“The boarder craft didn’t have any shields. It all but vaporised on contact.”
“No shields? It...”
“Captain Ripley,” Elton said quietly. “It’s time we...”
“I will not leave my crew behind!” The Captain turned angrily away from Simons. “Not even marines. Tate. Status on the derelict?”
“It’s impossible to tell, sir. Without being able to scan inside.”
“A best guess then. Hull integrity? Signs of damage? Anything!”
“Well,” the young man on scanners seemed uncomfortable with the task. “It doesn’t seem to be venting atmosphere where the boarder ripped off. Which suggests it hasn’t lost hull integrity. Or it’s possible it didn’t have any atmosphere to start with. There’s no way to tell. But its power output looks stable. And the fact that it’s still blocking scans suggests it’s, uh, functional.”

“So our boarder crew could still be alive in there?”
“I can’t say.”
“But it’s not impossible?” the Captain snapped.
“I really can’t say.”
“Standard procedure for boarding crews is to depart together.” Elton said.
“Yes,” the Captain said. “But...”
“It’s also standard procedure to unclamp from the mark,” Tate added. “And to request landing permission. And to let us drop shields.”
Elton ignored him. “I’m saying, most likely they were all vaporised on our shield. Wasting our time here.”
“We don’t know that,” the Captain insisted.
“We don’t know anything. In any case it’s,” Elton hesitated, noticing Jo on the bridge. “Captain, talk in your office?”
The Captain seemed unsure whether to agree to this.
“It’s important,” Elton said.
“Right.”
“Slammer. You too.”

As soon as the door closed behind them, Elton turned on Captain Ripley.
“Ripley, see reason. We’ve lost our only boarder and boarding crew. Couldn’t mount a rescue, even if it wasn’t a dumb idea. Nothing more we can do. Nothing more to be gained from staying here. Now we have other important business.”
“But if they’re still alive in there...”
“The holding force will retrieve them. The specialists who’re coming half way across the universe just to investigate this thing. Remember? We have our own job to do, right?”
The Captain didn’t answer.
“This could be the most important mission since Brennan’s Triumph. It’s a Federal Priority now. There are protocols that supersede military chains of command, do not make me invoke them, Ripley, do not become an obstacle. Need you as an asset. The Xenon Shipyard. The thing in our prison. Don’t lose focus now. We need you at 100%”
The Captain was nodding, slowly.

Elton turned to Jo. “So what’s out there?”
...


Lil pulled herself through the hatch, and into the Cheiron – her Centaur. She stopped for a moment, dizzy in the new artificial gravity. Then she cut through the main cargo hold into the sub-cockpit.
“Just one more stazura,” a familiar voice hissed at her.
“What?!” she exploded. “You said, you’d...”
“Psyche!”
“What?”
“All done,” Aksandros said.
“Really?” She asked. “Everything?”
“Well...” he said.
Lil glowered.
“Yes, yes,” Aksandros said quickly. “Joking.”
“Okay. So you got it all installed and working.”
“Ready for a field test,” Aksandros said.
“And the guns, shields, reactor. They’re all back up and running.”
“Better than ever. And the prototype missiles are ready,” he said. “I’ve loaded them into the spare ports. I think they will be quite devastating. I look forward to seeing how effective they are.”
“So what is it again? You stuffed mass-driver ammo around the warhead of a silkworm?”
“And a hornet. Modified one of each.”
“A hornet too?” She sighed. “Those are expensive you know.”
“More valuable now,” Aksandros said. “The hornet will still have 95% of its explosive power. But now it’ll deliver a quarter tonne of mass driver ammo straight to the target hull. An eighth for the silkworm.”
Lil raised her eyebrows, impressed. “Okay.”
“There’s still a lot of mass driver ammo,” Aksandros said. “And you have lots of missiles. I was thinking I could make up some more?”
Lil thought for a moment.
“They will be invaluable for fighting the Xenon,” Aksandros added.
“Okay,” she said. “Just leave me something to sell afterwards. Okay?”
“Sure thing.”

Lil walked away toward the cockpit.
Aksandros stared after her. He looked back towards the crate of missiles he had brought up earlier. A smile crept across his smooth, reptilian face.

Aksandros had an idea.
...


Part Two – Moving Out

Navy Tactical Log – 06:22 hrs AST
The holding-force has arrived and taken possession of the derelict. All data has been passed on; they will move the vessel to an undisclosed location for investigation.
We have now arrived at the East gate, and are currently aligning our systems with the two Navy Titans that have arrived in the sector – the destroyer-class Wakinyan and the Hermit-class Sennin. Once our systems are aligned (eta seven minutes) our escorts will lead this Colossus through the East gate. All fighters are now landing for repairs, re-fuelling, and pilot briefing.
Terracorp have agreed to leave a Titan, a Centaur, and fighters holding this sector for the duration of the mission.
...


“Be blunt with you.”
“I’ve never known you to be otherwise,” Jo said.
“Know each other well enough by now, Jo,” Elton said.
“So shoot.”
“Right. Your experience against the Xenon is the key reason I need you here. This out-weighed the risk of putting you back in active-service. This is clear, I presume.”
“I guess. Though I’m never totally sure with you, Simons.”
“Well, it’s so. But equally clearly, you’re just one pilot. A limit to how much one pilot can achieve.”
“Right.”
“Had hoped to make you commander, but that’s impossible now. Your... new look. And some of the officers were active in your hey-day. Too risky.”
“So?”
“So hand-pick a team. I’ve given you access to pilot data,” Elton waved at the computer system. “You can take ten pilots. I’ve highlighted the ones I’d pick. You’ve got two hours to choose your team and get them up to speed. Then you launch. Your team focus on take down of the shipyard.”
“What?! Just ten of us? And...”
“Eleven including you.”
“Whatever. And the rest do what? I thought the shipyard was the objective.”
“The rest cover you. They’ll engage enemy combat ships; take down the research base; finally, the shipyard. If it’s still there. But you’re our elite squad, moving in fast aiming for a quick decapitation.”
“So a forked attack? We’re expecting serious resistance then?” Jo asked. “I thought this was meant to be an easy kill.”
“Maybe it is. But I’m not believing that till it’s done.”
“And you want me to turn ten kids into an elite team?”
Elton’s eyes narrowed, he caught Jo’s eye. “Do you even want to do this, Jo?”
“What?”
“This shipyard. If you don’t, Jo, I don’t need you. I don’t want you. I need someone who’s committed to do this.”
“Hey, I... I can do this. I just want to know what it is you me to do exactly.”
“I want you to win,” Elton scowled. “Do whatever you have to do to make a shipyard-killing squad. If you need me to spell that out, you’re not Mak. You’re Jo.”
Elton had filled the last word with contempt.

“What?!” Jo flushed. “Who made me this, Elton? Who?!”
“A man makes himself.”
Jo glared.
“I burned you before, Mak,” Elton said quickly. “I know that. Not about to apologise. Was unfortunate, but necessary. The required sacrifice. Everyone’s expendable. Everyone. I’ll sacrifice myself as quickly when the time comes. For Argon.”
Elton voice had changed. He stopped, blinking rapidly. For a moment Jo thought Elton was crying.

Elton spoke again, his voice flat and even. “It’s about doing what has to be done. We saved Argon once, Mak. We did that. Since the Kha’ak, everyone forgot the Xenon. Things like the ASF get cut-back by politicians in budget reports. Now I make everything happen with no resources to work with. It’s what has to be done.
“This is another mission. Like the one that made us, Mak. Another Xenon shipyard. Again, victory here will turn the tide. It’ll keep Argon viable for a few more years. For you, Mak... Jo, it’s redemption. If you can’t do this for Argon or for any of that stuff we drilled into you in academy. Do it for the man you used to be.”
Jo nodded, looked to the floor, then laughed softly. “Do I even have a choice?”
Elton smiled, shook his head. “Not at all.”

When Jo had left, Elton watched after him for a while, staring at the closed door.
Despite himself, despite everything – Elton had to admit – he always liked that kid.
...


“Some things are more important than profit!”
“You are not Teladi,” Lil laughed.
“Well modified like this, missiles will be worth more anyway,” Aksandros said.
“Yeah, cos everyone’ll pay top-credits for missiles that’ve been tampered with by a Teladi curious-one!”
Aksandros suddenly had a look like an abused child.
“Okay, okay... So how does it work?” Lil asked.
“Well... the missiles I’ve made you so far are unidirectional, right?”
“Uh...”
“One direction. What I mean is, when I loaded mass-driver ammo into the missile, I loaded it all in the front of the body. In front of the explosive. So that all the mass-driver will be shot directly forward. Into the target, or whatever is in front of the missile.”
“Okay. Yeah.”
“Well, I am asking myself: why delimit ourselves to unidirectional projection? Why not an spherical dispersion pattern?”
“It’s a question we all ask ourselves,” Lil said gravely. “In those cold, lonely nights.”
Aksandros stared blankly. Her sarcasm was lost on the Teladi.
...


It's too close. It's touching your head. Its voices are inside your mind. You pull back, but too hard, and now suddenly you’re alone. A sudden silence. But wait... something moves. Something is chasing you. You don’t know what it is, or why, but you know you must run. You must. You know that. So you run. But there's no getting away. You know that too. Now you find yourself now in a room, thousands of people with one same face. One voice. They used to be your friend. But now you’re alone. You are not one of him. Panicking, you duck, crawl. You're wrong. They look at you in horror. Stop! They shouts. You. Stop. One who chased you has seen you now. Hands grasp for you. They seize you. Everyone. They do not understand you. You are not the one. You are wrong. You must be destroyed. They say as one, You are wrong. You are not the one.
What they say is true. They are the naked truth. You are one who hides under layers of deceit. You are obvious: an eskimo on a nudist beach. Suddenly you feel ashamed. Deeply. They know you with hate. You are like the others. Like the enemy. Like them. The One, he grabs you.
You are not correct, they says. You are like them.
You are pushed away from the true. Expelled. You are wrong. Yet there, among the wrong – the enemy... there you see your own reflection.
In the middle you stand, the bastard half-breed. On one side, the people, with your voice and face, those who shared your thoughts; on the other side, the enemy, the wrong, with your lonely soul, those who share your Dreams. Two great opposing armies. “Hey!” You are alone. The forces clash, and you are crushed between them. From both sides, they cut into your soft flesh. Now you are torn open. “Hzzar.”
Your body is in pieces; your limbs are scattered and your head is underfoot, yet you look to the suns. You feel the light fade in you. There is nothing left, and nothing in your power, and... “Hzzar Qr.” and this is it, this is really...
“Hzzar, respond.” The voice echoes in the void beyond death. It sounds familiar... somehow...
Suddenly it comes back. Reality lifts. The dream blows away. Your eyes snap open.
Your newest friend is here. A sudden warmness. A smile starts to cross your... Hzzar’s brain rebooted.

A moment later he spoke. “Asya. What is happening?”
“You were sleeping?”
“Right.”
“Interesting. So I thought you should know. We’re heading in for the final attack now. Plan is to cruise through the next sector, then take down that shipyard about three hours from now.”
“Good.”
“We hit the gate two minutes.”
“Good.”
...


Light, white clouds filled the darkness and gave this space a heavenly look. In the calm, creamy whiteness, the gate softly shimmered.
A flash, and the giant Titan – Sennin – had appeared. Its sudden appearance sent a ripple tearing through the clouds. It manoeuvred away from the gate, the clouds rippling in its wake. It moved to the side, clear of the gate, but still near enough to cover it. Another violent shudder went through the clouds as the fatter, meaner Titan – Wakinyan – appeared. That too took up a position to flank the gate.
Two Centaurs emerged. Some fighters.

Finally the Colossus entered the sector.
...


Part Three – Passing Through


The console beeped again. Lil opened a channel.
“Lil Sarra,” she said. “How can I help?”
A pause.
“Xenon,” she said. “Where?”
She opened a scan-port.
“Okay,” she said. “One sez while I confirm that.”
She worked on the scanner terminal.
“Right,” she said, nodding. “Got them. Consider ’em done.”
She closed the channel.
Time to move out.
...


In a small room by the hangars, Jo had set up a briefing room with the help of two of the pilots he had ‘recruited’.
“This was a lot more work in the days before transporters,” Jo joked.
The pilots laughed dutifully, then shared a look the moment his back was turned – Before transporters?! How old was this guy!?

Jo looked over the room. He turned back to the pilots.
“Okay,” he said. “We’re set. Round up the rest. Everyone on the list I gave you.”
“Sir!” the one with the jaw said. The two young pilots left the room together.
Jo looked at the list again. The one with the jaw was called Dekker. Jo had gone with every one of Elton’s suggestions, they were all pretty clear choices.
Elton still had it.
...


“Strange place.”
Lil jolted in her seat.
“Damn it, will you stop doing that!” She shouted at Aksandros. “Stop creeping up on me like that!”
“Sorry,” he said. “Teladi are naturally quiet movers.”
“Gonna have to put a bell on you or something.”
Lil shook her head.

“It is a strange system, though,” Aksandros said. “All these clouds.”
“Not so strange. Nebulas seem to be swallowing a lot of systems these days,” Lil observed. “It’s becoming a real pain in the ass to navigate in some sectors.”
“But then there are these gaps between the clouds. I’ve never seen this before.”
“The wonders of space, eh?”
“And that one particularly,” Aksandros said.
Lil followed his eyes to the north.
“What one?”
“That one. The roundish one. The colour’s different,” he said.
“Is it?” Lil looked around. “It’s white. They’re white. They’re all white. Looks same to me.”
“It’s definitely darker,” he said. “Redder.”
“Whatever,” Lil said. “That’s probably the hull-eater. Ran into it earlier in the Peg.”
Aksnadros nodded. “That would explain it.”
“Mystery solved.”
“I wonder why though,” Aksandros muttered. “It's a strange sector.”
“Whatever,” Lil said again. “Got a job to do.”
...


Jo looked up as the door opened. A couple of pilots entered, looking slightly lost.
“Uh... they said we should come here,” one said. “I’m Kyra Green. And this is Jay.”
“Sure,” Jo waved them in. “Have a seat.”
They shuffled through and sat down quietly, whispering to each other. The doors opened again as some more entered, one talking loudly. He looked at Jo and flashed a smile. That’d be Loni.
Almost immediately behind them a couple of women entered. The one called ‘Kami’ interested Jo, her flight record read just like his own used to: keeps fighting just the same no matter what the odds – no matter how bad things get – and somehow always comes through. She was smaller than he’d imagined. The other was Devero, a record for being a very steady pilot.
Finally, the original two returned, Dekker and friend, along with the final pilot.

When they settled Jo began.
“Call me Jo,” he said. “You’re probably wondering why you’re here, why I’m here, what’s happening. Answers straight up: you’re here because you’re the best squad on board; I’m here because I’m your flight leader, and we’re all on a special mission against the Xenon.”
He stopped for a moment, looked around.
“So what do I mean by special mission? Well, you’ve all been here long enough to know the Navy’s a sledgehammer, not a dagger. What the Navy does well is smash. Smash an enemy into dust. And the Navy’s just about to do its thing here and smash the Xenon.
“Which is all good, of course; but really the shipyard’s our target here. The rest is collateral. And people are worried the Navy might get so bogged down fighting the side battles, that they never make it to the shipyard. So what we need here is a dagger. Which is where we come in. Alongside the big Navy sledgehammer, we’re the special team. We’re the swift, silent dagger going for the deep cut right to the heart of the Xenon.”
...


“Didn’t see that coming, huh?!” Lil whispered. “Spoil your day!?” She squeezed the trigger again.
Another shot found the Xenon L’s tail causing it to explode.
“Miss ya. Bye.”
In a seat to her right, Aksandros gripped hard on the chair.
“Relax,” Lil said. “Almost done.”
Aksandros made an unpleasant noise, as Lil lurched the ship round for that final M. A stream of plasma leapt out from one of the automated side turrets. Just a few bolts actually hit, but that was more than enough.
“All gone,” Lil said, turning to Aksandros. “We won.”
Aksandros’ eyes rolled. His body visibly relaxed.

Lil faced Aksandros.
“So what the hell did you do to my ship?!” She said, deadpan.
“What?!”
“My ship!”
Aksandros’ face flushed “I...”
“It’s awesome!” Lil shouted, smiling. “The handling’s so light now it feels like an M3. And the way the plasma streams out... Yet my energy battery never got down to 50% What did you do!? I... This is, like... wow!”
Aksandros grinned; he suddenly looked bashful.
“It’s... It’s nothing. I... and I can’t take all the credit. My friend over at Bala Gi, we were sharing idea before on manoeuvring software, and... I... Besides. Ha! You bought your ship at Prime, right? Argon Prime?”
“Yeah. Why you ask?!”
“Well, it sets the bar pretty low! No shipwright at Lyrae would sign-out a ship as totally unoptimised as yours was. It would be more than their job was worth. More than their life was worth! It wouldn’t be a question of whether they’d get fired, it would be what they’d get fired at! People are serious about ships in the border worlds. They have to be. But the core sectors are safe. People don’t notice so much. Least not until it’s too late.”
“That right?” She nodded. “Did a damn good job.”
“So you’ll let me do your missiles now?”
Lil smiled.

“Was thinking about that,” she said thoughtfully. “Your idea, if I understood it right, was to wrap mass-driver ammo all-round a silkworm’s warhead, right. So it fires fragments in every direction when it explodes. Like a ball of shrapnel – in every direction. Right?”
“Right.”
“As you said, too weak to do any real damage to anything of substance. But maybe useful for clusters of small fighters? Right? At least to slow them down.”
“Right.”
“So my idea,” she said. “Mosquito missiles.”
Aksandros thought for a moment. Then his eyes widened.
“Of course,” he said. “Why didn’t I even think of that? The missile’s just our delivery system. We don’t need a big silkworm explosion. The explosion’s wasted anyway. And a silkworm’s a sitting duck for an N. The mosquitoes are smaller, smarter, faster...”
“Cheaper...”
...


Jo led his team out across the hangar bay.
“Our ships are being loaded out now,” Jo went on. “Beyond cutting edge. These babies are ASF. We’re looking at fully maxed Novas, radio silenced, with no ID signals and passive scanner suites – very difficult to detect. Naturally, these babies’ve been loaded out with beta plasma throwers; but they’re also carrying ion disrupters, mass drivers, and enough missiles and ammo to destroy the average sector. What’s more these weapons can be redeployed and refitted in an instant, to allow an rapidly changing assault profile that can adapt to just about anything. And this is all taken care of by a preprogrammed, fully-automated, internal transporter system. No fiddling about with weapons consoles in the middle of a battle! As such, we can adapt instantly to meet any challenge. Anything from the swarm of Ns, through to the K.”
Jo pressed the elevator button. “In short, we’re bad-ass.”
The elevator doors opened. Jo’s team entered, and he followed.

“So we’re working for the ASF?” one of them asked from the anonymity of the back of the elevator. “Separately from everyone else.”
“That’s right,” Jo said. “The Service are directing us here. We’re an elite squad. Officially speaking.”
“Wow.”
“I probably don’t need to tell you,” Jo said. “But a solid performance here will go a long way toward any ASF applications you got pending. You’ve got a chance to impress all the right people.”
“Where do you fit in?” Loni asked. “You ASF?”
“Right,” Jo said.
“Active?”
“Yes.”
“You fight at Lyrae?”
Jo looked back an Loni, opting for a half-truth. “Can’t say. Sorry. Most information about my world is classified. You understand.”
Loni nodded sagely.
The elevator doors opened. Jo let the others out ahead of him.

“Where are we going?” ‘Kami’ asked. ‘Kami’ – meaning Spirit – was her call-sign; her real name was Mariko.
“Tactical room,” Jo said. “We’re gonna run through our approach vector together. Then we’re hitting the simulators to straighten out our call-signs, coordination, weapons profiles, etcetera. Within two hours, we’re gonna need to be able to function as a unit. So I’m gonna need your concentration.”
“Time enough,” Loni said.

Jo led the way through the corridors to the tactical room. He entered the outer-section of the room, his team trailing behind him. He quickly passed through, almost walking straight into the opposing door. It failed to open for him. He stood for a moment, waiting. Nothing. Annoyed, he hit the manual open button.
“EM sealed area,” the computer reported. “Please allow the outer door to close.”
“Huh?” Dekker looked to Jo.
“Seems a little paranoid,” Jo observed. “Someone’s put this whole area inside a communications damping field. So no signals can escape.”
Jo waved all the pilots into the room.
“High security,” Jo explained. “It’s operating like an airlock system. Both doors are signal blocking. But this door won’t open till that one’s shut. It’s the only way to make sure a brief signal burst can’t escape.”
The pilots bunched together, and the rear door closed. Jo pressed the ‘open’ button again, and the door hissed open.
Jo was instantly face to face with a Xenon. Its head rotated to face him.

His face reflected in its cold, gold eyes.
...


Part Four – Ahead in the Clouds


“It’s okay,” Asya shouted. “It’s okay. They won’t harm you!”
It was a moment before Jo realised she was talking to the Xenon.
“It’s okay,” she said again.

The pilots crowded behind Jo.
“Hello,” the Xenon said. “I am Hzzar Qr.”
“What the hell!?” Someone said.
“He's okay,” Asya stepped in front of it protectively. “He’s the reason we’ve got this chance. He’s on our side.”
Jo met the Xenon’s gaze.
“We’ve met,” Jo said. “I’m the guy who flew it in.”
“It’s head’s huge!”
“It looks like a giant baby!”
“What’s it doing out of the brig?” Someone asked. “It was confined to the brig, they said.”
“I brought him here,” Asya said. “He’s helping us.”
“I suppose you’ve got clearance for this?” Dekker asked.

Asya looked sharply at him, somehow irritation seemed out of place on her. Her face struggled to find the right form.
“Look, fella, I hate to be rude here, but I’ve taken every precaution. And I don’t see I should have to answer to everyone on board. I really don’t. I’m working here. For the President. If you have a problem, could you take it to your CO and let me get on with my job?”
Jo was still looking at the Xenon. “Can we use a terminal, Ms Rieka?”
“Sure,” she said, sighing. “There are spare.”

Jo walked around the Xenon. Its eyes followed him.
“You are Priority Target 000101,” Hzzar said flatly. “Argon Male. Preferred fighter, Elite.”
Jo’s eyes widened.
“Style: aggressive. Strengths: manoeuvre, accuracy, multiple enemy. Projected weakness: missiles.”
Jo glanced to Asya, “Did you..?”
“The Nexus knows you,” Hzzar explained. “You are a Priority Target. You were involved in attacks on Sector 009. You say: Nopileo’s Memorial. Destroyed Nexus shipyard. Later, you were in advance attacks on Sectors 022, 025, 027, 031 and 033. Confirmed kills: 494. Confirmed active: years 741 to 744. Current status: unknown. Name... unknown.”
“A marked man,” Loni laughed. “Sounds like you got a reputation, Jo!”
“Lucky me,” Jo said. “Asya. Have you been teaching this thing English? Before it was kind of... r*******. Now it can talk better.”
Asya shook her head. “He just seems to absorb it. From listening. I don’t know. I’m planning to examine the video later. See how he does it. It’s fascinating.”
“Right.”
...


“Arrived at the East gate,” Lil said into the comms. “Awaiting further instructions.”
She listened for a moment.
“No, nothing on scanners here. Got triplexes on full though, so...”
She nodded.
“Right. You don’t want me to go through?”
She listened for a moment longer.
“Sounds good to me,” she said.
Finally she nodded again.
“Acknowledged. I hold a wide circling pattern till the Sennin and Wakinyan get here, then we pass through to hold the far side of the gate. Wakarimashita.”
Lil frowned.
“No... it’s uh... It’s Japanese. It means ‘understood’. Like, I’ll do what you just sai...”
Her face flushed.
“I know this isn’t some Argon diplomatic envoy... No, I didn't even think that. No, I don't mean to imply you're some city bureaucrat... Well, no nothing like that 'actually'. I just like Japanese, my friend taught me some... Right. Yes. No time. Yes. Understood. Yes, sir. Bye...”
Lil reached for the kill button.
“Dick.”
She made sure she hit the kill button just late enough for him to hear that last word clearly.
...


Jo and his team finished up at the terminal.
“Everyone clear on what we’re doing?” Jo asked.
“Clear,” they said.
“Good,” Jo said. “Next stop, sims.”
Jo led towards the door.
“Pilots,” the Xenon called.
They stopped.
It turned towards them. Asya looked over her shoulder at them.
It walked towards Jo.
“000101,” It said. “Jo. With you leading the defence, I now understand how Sector 892 held. With you leading the attack on the Shipyard, I am certain of victory. This is good.”
“Right,” Jo said, unsure how to respond. “I’ll do my best.”
“Do not forget that my fellow Epsilons – my friends – need extraction,” it said.
“My only target is the Shipyard,” he said. “The research base is someone else’s problem. I won’t take it down.”

“Understood,” it said.
Jo stood awkwardly for a moment.
“Pilot,” it said, hesitating. “Do not fail.”
...


Lil was on the comms again.
“Understood,” she said. “So I’ll lead through the gate.”
“Good luck,” the Sennin comms officer said. “We’ll be right behind you.”
“Thanks,” she said. “See you on the other side!”
Lil looked round behind her. Sure enough, the Sennin was already lined up for the gate, ready to follow her through. The Wakinyan, further back, was still lining itself up behind.
“Aksandros,” she shouted.
“Yes,” she heard him call back.
“Whatever you’re doing, stop, and get yourself strapped in somewhere safe. This could get intense.”
“Sure,” Aksandros called back.
Lil set a course for the gate.
She heard Aksandros enter the room, behind her. The gate glowed gently. It looked so serene.
Yet just beyond that gate was the new Xenon core sector. The shipyard. The system they would fight hardest to defend.
She just had to hope for the best.
“Okay,” Aksandros said. “I’m in.”
Lil took one last look around her. She took a breath, let it out heavily, and started to accelerate toward the gate.

Here we go.
...


Several sectors back towards civilisation, a fly-through sector, a Discoverer was on patrol. The ‘Disco’ sported a Terracorp logo and the name ‘Teiresias’ emblazoned on the side in a bold, beautiful graffiti logo. It was a unique design from a leading graffiti artist at the Pirate Base in Nathan’s Voyage – the pilot, Davi Abanty had specially commissioned it back when he got the ship super-souped-up in nearby Omicron Lyrae.
Right now, Davi was running police patrol in the Sector. Checking that none of the passing traffic was trying to sneak slaves or mines through the sector. Typically, this far out from the core, they turned a blind eye to spacefuel and spaceweed. These were hard sectors, why make life harder?
A call came through.

“Yo?” Davi answered.
“Hello, is that Davi Abanty?”
His body stiffened, he glanced at the screen. Blinking, he pretended not to have heard her.
“I repeat, Terracorp patrol beta, Davi Abanty, speaking... Can I help yo?”
“Davi Abanty?” she said again. “This is Elena Kho.”
“Ms Kho!” He said. “Wow! It’s an honour. Can I help you?”
“Yes,” she said. “You can. There’s been a development. I’m going to be open with you on the understanding that this goes no further, understood.”
“Yes, ma’am. Understood.”
“Your two commanders, Moor and Reynolds, they’re being held – kidnapped perhaps – by the A.S.S. The Argon Secret Service.”
“What?!”
“They’ve done nothing wrong, legally speaking. But, I’m fairly sure the Service will make them disappear, given the chance to do it covertly, and I’ll lose two good employees. Which is bad.”

“Right.”
“So what I want you to do is take away their chance. Make this overt,” she stared for a moment. “I understand you have a very fast ship.”
“The fastest,” he said. “600mps.”
“Excellent. Then I want you to go after them immediately – go north one sector and seek them out from there – and openly proclaim you’re there to pick our people up.”
“Huh?”
“They're not under any kind of legal arrest,” Elena sounded angry now. “They haven’t broken any laws. So I want you to openly radio the ship they’re being held on and declare that you’re there to pick them up. As agreed. As they’re needed back at work.”
“As agreed?”
“That’s what you’re to say. That way, if the Service really want to keep them, they’ll have to make some official, legal case of it. Then we can do something to legally protect our people.”
“Right,” Davi squeaked.
“They’ve gone too far,” Elena fumed. She had that scary, semi-psychotic gleam in her eye. “I do not let my employees get kidnapped by anyone. Not even the service.”
“Right,” Davi said. He supposed, in some way, that was reassuring.
Sort of.
...


Asya had left Hzzar standing in his cell.

Now she paced her office restlessly.
Hzzar hadn’t seemed upset to be left alone there, but she felt bad leaving him like that. After all the help he was giving them it felt wrong. Here he was doing his best to help – doing everything they asked, more – and they lock him away in a cell on his own. Won’t even let him know about the progress of the mission he made possible, the mission that decides his future. Won’t even let him help.
Asya sighed. Rotated her shoulders trying to loosen them up, relax a little. It was a bad situation. But once this was done, once the shipyard was gone, everyone would relax a little, they would have time to see Hzzar for who he was. To see how much he had helped them. They would stop calling him ‘it’.
But for now she still had a job to do. She sat down to her terminal.

She started to work on yet another report.
...


Part Five - Closing in


At the head of the simulator chamber, Jo waited for his pilots to gather.
“So everyone clear on what we’re doing?” He asked.
Nods, grunts.
“Any final questions?”
Silence.
“Good. We’re now on final approach to the gate. The other pilots are launching now. They’re gonna run escort as we pass through the gate,” Jo said. “Once through, they’re gonna neutralise anything near the gate and start running scouts deeper into the sector. We’ll launch later, after the gate’s secure, and the grid’s set up. We will head directly for the target. We now have about 25 minutes preparation time. Use it as you will.”
“Are our ships set-up and ready?” Devero asked.
“Yes. And double checked. Though I suggest you take five to ten minutes before launch to treble check. Just to make sure everything’s where you expect it to be. It never hurts to be sure.”
“Yeah,” Loni said. “I remember one time; damn tech re-wired my ship wrong. Moving the stick right/left made the ship pitch up and down. And vice-versa, y’know. Not fun when you’re fighting Kha’ak. If it hadn’t been for autopilot...”
“Exactly,” Jo cut him off. “And I just heard from our Xenon friend that the Xenon’ve probably had time to build a cap-ship at the Yard. This is because we spent so long twiddling our thumbs back in the last sector. If there is a cap, chances are it’ll still be near the shipyard, so we’ll probably be the ones who have to take it down.”
The pilots nodded. They looked ready.
“No problem,” Loni said. “Ain’t that right Kami? You’ve taken on a K before.”
Kami nodded. “Compared to Kha’ak cap-ships they’re easy. With these ships you can actually evade incoming fire.”
“If you look at the stats,” Devero added. “We do far better against Xenon cap-ships than Kha’ak.”
“I hate Kha’ak,” Dekker agreed.
“We’ll be fine,” Loni said.
“Right,” Jo said. “They’re not a problem. Keep cool, keep moving and keep hitting them. That’s the trick. There are enough of us that we don’t need to take risks.”
“Right.”
“Now,” Jo said. “I’m gonna stay here at the sims and do some more drilling. You can train with me. Or you can do your own thing. Just be ready to launch as soon as we get the word. Estimating about twenty, twenty-five minutes.”
They all nodded without a word.
“Clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
“This could be tough. Are we confident?”
Nothing.
“Are we confident?” Jo repeated.
“Almost arrogant!” Loni smiled.
Jo couldn’t stop himself smiling too.
...


Elton Simons was nearing the end of Asya’s report.

Something caught his eye.
... As described above, Hzzar had detailed information on one of our pilots – Jo Slammer – certainly more than shows up on official records. Hzzar later told me the Nexus keeps minor data on all pilots whenever it can uniquely identify them – which it does through our radio signals. When pilots gain a certain amount of notoriety, this is upgraded to a more detailed file. At first this just includes an higher kill level – meaning that Xenon fighters will give this fighter a higher priority. If the target persists, however, the Nexus starts to analyse them, to suggest tactics against them. It seems that at some point in the past, for one reason or another, Jo rose pretty high on their list.

A pained expression shot across Elton’s face. He sat back sharply against the seat. His head rolled back, he stared up at the roof and sighed. He closed his eyes. Finally, he pulled himself forward, toward the screen. His eyes opened and he continued to read.

The Xenon analysis of Jo was interesting.
One thing the Xenon figured out about Argon some time ago, is that we fear. They didn't always know that. In our first battles with them, they were baffled as, time and again, our fighters ran away from certain victory. It was the kind of tactical error they simply could not understand. After some analysis they realised these retreats always followed a spike in Argon deaths. So, they predicted, by generating kill-spikes, they could prompt retreats. What we would call: shock tactics.
And it works, because while all pilots want to fight for the greater good, no-one wants to be the one who dies for it. The Xenon never understood this much, but they saw the trend and they exploited it ruthlessly. This underpinned their combat tactics for the next five hundred years.
This was largely the story of the first Argon war. How, even with vastly inferior forces, they were able to win key battles. By throwing everything they had at one point, regardless of how much they lost, they routed us, time and again, and massacred us in the ensuing chaos.

For one reason or another, some pilots – Jo included – respond differently. For some reason they are immune to shock tactics. Thus, the Xenon cannot use the pilot’s own fear of death to press them into disadvantage. They are unpredictable. As they start to feel un-killable, the Xenon lose their single most effective tactic. Ironically, by not fearing death, these pilots make themselves much harder to kill.
This suggests a few courses of action.
First, our radio signals must be better encrypted so that the Xenon can’t keep records on our pilots.
Second, we must train pilots in more effective means of countering shock tactics.

Elton shook his head.
“State the obvious,” he said to the screen.
Still, it was probably necessary given the fact that Navy chiefs would be reading this. They need everything spelled out nice and simple.

Elton rested his elbows on the desk and put his hands together, fingertips touching, He leaned his face forward until his forefingers touched his brow.
Jo was becoming too high-profile. Elton was starting to see his name everywhere. Pilots talking about him. Xenon recognising him. Hits on the Argon database. Now official reports hinting at a hidden past. Not to mention those Terracorp people, already under room-arrest for uncovering him.

Mak Orijin’s ghost just would not settle.

“Problematic,” Elton muttered. “Problematic.”
...


Aksandros felt himself pulled left as the Centaur lurched again. Ten empty, metallic war-head cases rolled across the floor, followed by smaller balls of mass-driver ammo Aksandros had dropped earlier. He heard them chink against the wall.
Mid-fight. Not the best of circumstances under which to be doing missile modification work. To be extra safe Aksandros had already removed the warhead detonator modules and placed them in the next room. He didn’t want any accidents.
Nine of the warheads sat in a box now, finished. Aksandros was working on the last one. He had already seeded one layer of mass-driver all around the warhead, he was now putting a second layer around that. Thanks to the magnetic properties of mass-driver ammo, it was easier than he had anticipated. By the tenth one, he had gotten quite fast at it.
Soon he had finished. He turned the warhead in his hands, examining it. It was perfectly round, and roughly the size of an Argon head. At first, it had been smooth and white – marble like – but now it was coated in mass-driver ammo – silver balls, each about a centimetre across. It looked like a large ball made up entirely of smaller balls.
He nodded. He hadn’t missed anything. It was thoroughly coated, except for a 3cm cylindrical hole, where the detonator module fitted in. He placed it in the box with the others, and rose to his feet.
Suddenly, there was a loud buzz from the shields. The ship shook violently. A missile. Now the ship swept back and sent Aksandros stumbling forward.
Really not the best circumstances.

With a hand on the wall for support, Aksandros ran through into the next room and grabbed the case of detonators. He carried it back. The detonator modules were a similar shape to the missiles themselves. Similar in shape to Argon male genitalia – or so he’d heard. Apparently, some Argon women viewed this as some kind of male psycho-sexual need for dominance or something. This amused Aksandros; Teladi always made missiles just the same, and Teladi genitalia was very different! Engineering, intelligent or evolutionary, finds the same optimal solutions.

Aksandros worked on the missiles one by one. The detonators slipped quickly into the warhead-ball, gripped in place magnetically. The warhead then fitted into the rounded warhead case, which, in turn, clipped into the missile. The outer body of the missile then fitted over this. Each missile took slightly under a mizura to reassemble.

By the time Aksandros finished, the fighting had, at least temporarily, stopped. He scuttled into the command bridge. Lil glanced round.
“Hey,” she said. “You go for a nap?”
“The missiles are ready,” he said. “The mosquitoes.”
Lil laughed. “Wow! You’re good.”
Aksandros smiled. “How was the ship? For fighting?”
“It’s awesome!” Lil said. “Already told you that. You fishin’ for compliments!?”
“Fishing?”
“Nothing... Huh? Oh, hey, guess what?”
“Huh?”
“Another cluster of Ns. Six. Closing on the Colossus. We’re good to intercept. How about we try out these new missiles of yours?”
“Yes!”
...

The tiny missile zipped through space. At 5km the Xenon spotted it. Still they hadn’t registered any missile-lock warning. The leading Xenon took a few shots at it, but it was too small, missed. It slipped between them, not clearly heading for any one ship, then burst, like a dying star.
For a fraction of a second, the Xenon were confused. Then the third ship of the squadron, just ahead of the explosion, lost a large chunk of the hull shielding its thrusters. Hot thruster blast tore through the rear half of the ship. It pitched sharply and thruster fire engulfed it. It exploded. The second N in the squadron lost its lower ‘wing’, which casually flew off, carrying away both of its gamma IREs. The sixth N, furthest back, suddenly had three large holes across the red-glass at the front. It slowed to a halt. Its radio signal – or lack thereof – informed the universe it was now open for claiming.
The other ships took hull and thruster damage, critically slowing them down, and making them easy prey for the approaching Centaur. Seconds later they too were gone.

Lil swept in. Her computer quickly claimed the empty ship.
“Freebie,” Lil said. “Almost undamaged. 350mps. Nice.”
“You like?” Aksandros asked.
“I like.”

The comm beeped.
“Lil Sarra,” she answered. “Cheiron, Centaur class corvette.”
“Nice work,” Jo’s face appeared over the comms. “Looks like you got yourself a free gift.”
“Jo!” she smiled. “Yeah, we’re having fun out here? You gonna keep me company?”
“Not quite,” Jo smiled. “I wish. But we got a mission to do.”
“We?” Lil looked to the scanner. “Oh, wow! You’ve made friends!”
Jo laughed. “Yeah. Friends! Navy kids. Just my kind of people!”
“Those ships look pretty mean... Are those..? Woah! You’re armed to the teeth. You off to invade the Xenon home-world?”
“Just the shipyard.”
“Really?” she said, her smile falling away. “Already? I haven’t had any orders about that yet.”
“It’s just my wing. We’re going in ahead. That’s why the weapons.”
“Just you?”
“Yeah.”
“Is that... normal?”
“Yeah. I been doing this kinda thing for years,” Jo said. “It’s nothing.”
“Right...”
“Back soon.”
“Good,” Lil said. “Meet you in the bar. You can buy me a Red Whine!”
“Whine?!” Jo laughed. “You really are a miner girl, aren’t ya!?”
Lil smiled back. “Just be careful, huh, Jo.”
“Always,” he lied. “I’ll be back.”
They shared a smile.
“Laters,” she said.
“Bye.”

Lil turned her ship to watch Jo’s wing – those ten small dots – moving away. Even from here, she could see the huge, distant shipyard. It really was big. There was something else near it. Maybe a cap-ship.
Lil sighed.
And who knows how many smaller ships. M3s, M4s...

“They’ll come back,” Aksandros whispered. “He’ll be fine.”
“Yeah,” Lil said, looking round at him sharply.

“I know.”
...

Chapter Eleven - Choice

[Syndrome]

Dude, you're a legend

Aksandros had an idea.

A good one or a bad one

[Mailo]

Aksandros had an idea.

A good one or a bad one

He's a Teladi. A Teladi scientist. A Teladi scientist who tinkers with machinery. You really think there's a difference?

Nice story, I liked the conversation between Jo and Lil, where most things stayed unsaid.

[Dragonteen]

penetrating warheads?

[Syndrome]

I think I should point out that a warhead encased in shield penetrating 'armour' would go through the shields, not just hit the shields and let the MD ammo hit the hull. I got the impression that's what happened, but I could be wrong. That's what I've got from my studying of X Universe technology...

...now just to find a way to divert plasma coils a through h so that the inverted cilindrical cannon head will create exactly forty four thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide, allowing me to reroute the life support systems, therefore...

[The Zig]

First, the missile (I think this was described as vaguely in chapter eight):
To clarify, mass-driver ammo is actually loaded on the front of the explosive fuel which surrounds the warhead core. Picture an egg - the yolk is the core, the white is the fuel, the ammo is stuck onto the tip of the shell. This is all contained INSIDE the actual body of the missile. This is much the same as glass, nails, metal balls, and other totally evil crap, are often loaded in explosives to make them more deadly.
Therefore, the missile-body will impact with the shield, as normal, and detonate the warhead as normal. Except, now the explosion will also propel the loaded mass driver ammo, as shrapnel, more or less straight forward. Mass dirver ammo, of course, slips right through shields and will thus be delivered straight to the hull of whatever is in front of the missile.

The explosive power of the missile is only slightly decreased, due to where explosive fuel has been hollowed out to make space for the ammo inside the missile body.

At least, this is Aksandros' theory. Will it work, or will there be some unforeseen complication?
(Personally I think this would be a realistic missile development for X4. Although, from a playability point of view, it would be a bugger to get attacked by pirates with these! Especially the silkworm version.)
I'll try to work some of this into the story. Cheers for the feedback.

As for Aksandros' new idea. It's a variation on above. As may soon be demonstrated. Aaaanyway, cheers for the comments. Hope it's still a fun read. I have this planned out to the end now, and I have some time off at the mo, so hopefully this will move faster now.

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeers!

[Syndrome]

First, the missile (I think this was described as vaguely in chapter eight):
To clarify, mass-driver ammo is actually loaded on the front of the explosive fuel which surrounds the warhead core. Picture an egg - the yolk is the core, the white is the fuel, the ammo is stuck onto the tip of the shell. This is all contained INSIDE the actual body of the missile. This is much the same as glass, nails, metal balls, and other totally evil crap, are often loaded in explosives to make them more deadly.
Therefore, the missile-body will impact with the shield, as normal, and detonate the warhead as normal. Except, now the explosion will also propel the loaded mass driver ammo, as shrapnel, more or less straight forward. Mass dirver ammo, of course, slips right through shields and will thus be delivered straight to the hull of whatever is in front of the missile.

The explosive power of the missile is only slightly decreased, due to where explosive fuel has been hollowed out to make space for the ammo inside the missile body.

At least, this is Aksandros' theory. Will it work, or will there be some unforeseen complication?
(Personally I think this would be a realistic missile development for X4. Although, from a playability point of view, it would be a bugger to get attacked by pirates with these! Especially the silkworm version.)
I'll try to work some of this into the story. Cheers for the feedback.

As for Aksandros' new idea. It's a variation on above. As may soon be demonstrated. Aaaanyway, cheers for the comments. Hope it's still a fun read. I have this planned out to the end now, and I have some time off at the mo, so hopefully this will move faster now.

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeers!

Oh ok then I recon you're at least half way done.

When you finish, you can work on the sequel, Terraformer Nightmares

[KiwiNZ]

Great new chapter! Looks like Lil and Jo feel mutual attraction. I like the speach of Elton's to the captain. Sounds like a back-handed motivation Though, he is right, he really needs the captain.

Looking forward to the next part and seeing how the ship modifications pan out!

[Warenwolf]

I began reading this story two years ago and I thought you had given up on finishing it. Nice to see that I have been wrong

The bad thing thing is that I have to refresh my memory... Oh well, time to start on ch1 once again

[kethalpak]

I began reading this story two years ago and I thought you had given up on finishing it. Nice to see that I have been wrong

The bad thing thing is that I have to refresh my memory... Oh well, time to start on ch1 once again

I remember reading this in school when I was supposed to be working, now I am reading it at work when I am ment to be working

[Star_Raider15]

christ, i love this fan fic, i love it love it love it
Zig, write more or else im comin to japan after you to milk the story out of you

[jannix]

This story is the best ever!! Please don't stop writing or... we'd have to hunt you down!!!

[The Zig]

Hey,
New part's finally up. Thanks for the comments people! (And cheers to Kethalpak for making me feel ancient!) Aye, I remember starting this story in Nottingham, England when the highlight of my day was catching the bus home from work... Now I'm in Japan, and I catch the train... ah, how times change!

So anyway, I've set myself the target of finishing this before my birthday. My birthday ain't that far off. So expect another part this week. It's time I finally wrote this god-damn ending!
Enjoy...

[jannix]

Great part 2. Thanks

[Star_Raider15]

*bows down to God*
thats all i have to say

[The Zig]

Thanks, as ever, for feedback...
Part 3 for you now. Part four in a few days. I'm setting a target for Wednesday/Thursday.
This chapter will be five parts to set us up for the next (and final) chapter...

Enjoy...

[KiwiNZ]

Excellent new parts, both with nice cliff hangers. The last one is particularly intriguing. Only got to read them today and really great work. I noticed everybody now speaks in short sentences, presumably a sign of the tension the up-coming events generate.

Looking forward to the next part!


How's life in Japan these days? Still enjoyable or have you started to develop home sickness?

[Star_Raider15]

great part, loved it
i wonder what will happen to Lil but im mostly curious about Jo, being face to face with a Xenon must sure be something one cant forget, especially for the cadets

[jackhanna88]

Excellent update, it's so nice to read something of such consistent quality.

[The Zig]

New part's up.
Those of you with awesome memories may remember Abanty and his ship from Chapter 2, and Moor and Reynolds from about Chapter 6.

Yeah, I thought it was time Jo and the Xenon met, it gives some interesting opportunities, some of which came out here, some are in the next part.

And the sentence thing... hmm. Elton and Lil always speak in kind of sentence fragments unless they're really trying not to. Especially Elton (barely a wasted word). It's kind of their voice. Jo's a bit less concise, but now he's getting back into action, I guess it's motivating him, yes. Aksandros on the other hand just likes talking... and talking!

As I think I said already, Eleven is to be the final real chapter. There will also be an short-ish epilogue, which I may label "Chapter 12" just cos 12 is a nicer number than 11!