The Renegade (short story) Revised edition

[Sleeper Service]

The Khaak war was a desperate time for the Argon. Still recovering from the Xenon invasion the Argon were ill equipped to fight such a huge war against an unknown enemy, many men fought and died against the hordes of the Khaak. In the front line of this conflict was a squadron of fighters who did much to turn the tide of the war ''The screaming skulls'' they were based off the argon one and directly commanded by Ban Danna. The squadron consisted of five M3 class Novas and had the highest kill rate in the fleet. One of the pilots was promoted to Captain for outstanding conduct in the battle of Black Hole Sun. Unfortunately the rest of the squadron were destroyed at the battle of Argon Prime when they failed to escape the Khaak mother ship’s service ducts before it was destroyed.

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The old man sat in the huge leather command chair of the bridge. He stared through the veiwscreen at the flaming wreck of a sector that was once ''Home of Light''. The old man smiled. He did not derive pleasure from the act of killing men but he found the task amusingly easy to perform. He stroked the soft leather of the command chair.
''Not long now my love, Not long now''
His voice was old and broken but it had power and a commanding tone. He loved his ship, not as a ship but as a person. Of course the ship we are speaking of is no ordinary ship, it is the ''Truth''. Truth was a strange ship, the first to use neural reference technology. This technology reads the subconscious thoughts of the crew of a ship and makes a tactical decision about a given situation based on the opinion of the crew and the computer's own logic core, the result is a 80 percent increase in efficiency and a 10 percent increase in crew moral.

Truth however was broken, only slightly, a small warping in a silicon chip controlling the logic core, not even visible to the human eye. Truth was also special because of her hull. It was as black as the swirling vortex of a nightmare, not only that but it was stiff and angular to deflect radar waves. The effect was heart stopping, a true Titan, for Truth the class name Titan meant it. It was the ship everyone wanted but the old man got it.

He adjusted his position on the chair. The old man had lived a long time, he saw it only fit as a testimony to his life to look back on some of the many memories he possessed. He remembered the day he joined the Argon military it was thirty Jazuras ago he was a young man full of righteous fury and visions of glory. He remembered being posted to the Argon one as a Discoverer scout pilot, he rose quickly through the ranks on the wings of ambition after 5 Jazuras he made Captain. It was then he met his true love, Truth, she called to him. He spent 7 Mazuras being a good captain and serving the Argon federation like a nice little puppy dog. The old man chuckled into his beard. Finally Truth got to him, he couldn’t resist her call it was like she could read her mind. The old man didn't believe in superstition, after all he wasn’t a dammed Goner. But Truth did talk to him, and the rest of the crew, a voice on the edge of hearing, soothing and comforting. He found he would do anything for that voice.

Truth told him to hire Pirates, lots of Pirates. Enough to take control of a sector, he chose a newly discovered sector with a shipyard ''Bret's memorial.'' The sector was badly defended, one Titan the ''Highroad'' Captained by Jule Descoran. Not a very intelligent man or a good commander. The operation was simple, the pirates would stage a diversionary attack at the north gate while the Truth entered the west gate came up behind the Highroad destroying its shields with a well placed Hornet then following up with a shockwave attack to finish off the hull. In theory a great plan but in practice very hard to execute. He remembered the night before the attack, speaking to the pirate leader watching him wriggle in pain as Truth ''convinced'' him that the attack was a good idea. His mind drifted back to the memory of the battle. He entered the system via the west gate as planned, only to find the pirates were being routed by the Highroad's home squadron. Freeing the Highroad to patrol the sector again. He remembered with relish kicking the Truth into manual and slamming down the Boost. Jule saw him coming but didn't know what to do, he just sat there. Jule only just activated the turrets when a hornet missile rocked the ship.
''What in God's name are you doing! Your firing on your own men! Stop!''
He had to admit Jule put up a brave fight, considering the situation. After a mizura of vicious fighting, the crippled highroad's port engines were blown to bits causing the Highroad to veer off and leave it's core section open to attack. Truth saw the opening and discharged her forward energy bank into it. The Highroad ripped itself apart from the inside as mechanical systems melted in the expanding plasma explosion from the core, the crew tried to get to the escape pods but there was no time none survived.

He and the pirates ransacked the sector taking slaves for the shipyard and credits for the pirates. Then the second part of Truth's plan started, they were to build a fleet and at it's head was to be a carrier, not a normal carrier, more of a battleship witch contained ships than a carrier. It would pack 36 Photon pulse cannons and 120 Novas. Truth's plan was to transfer her program to this super carrier and rampage through Argon prime. Then she would release the swarm on Argon itself reducing the planet to dust. The fleet was incredible, it was vast. It must have been made up of at least 90 customised novas, 3 centaurs and over 200 busters their position looked impregnable. But just as the fleet was taking the offensive, word reached Argon by a Disco that got through the barricade and the Argon one activated its jump drive and came fireballing through the north gate. Suddenly the void was full of enemy ships.
'' This is Ban Danna speaking. All ships, Engage''
the pirates were ill prepared to defend their sector, but fought back like a cornered animals. He remembered the sight, a thousand screaming bolts of plasma eating into a thousand different ships, blue fireballs burning into existence in the place of unfortunate pilots and watching cap ships being slashed by waves of plasma until they split at the seams separating the ship's flesh from its metal bones. the battle ran on for hours him verses Ban Danna in a sector wide game of chess. He would advance towards the Argon one only to be beaten back by another wave of fighters, some times he would score a Titan, but the Argon just kept sending wave upon wave of ships constantly renewing their position. Eventually after hours of fighting and 3,000 men dead, the pirates were pushed back to the shipyard only 20 fighters, 1 centaur and the Truth remained at their disposal while the Argon had a full 500 fighters, 20 centaurs, 2 destroyers and the Argon one to face them. He decided to retreat, he could not hold the super carrier, surprisingly Truth agreed.

He remembered the shame and the indignation of losing. Not just the sector but the men. The Truth's jump drive activated taking him to ''Brennan's Triumph'' few pirates followed, and those that did were badly damaged. He spent the next 24 Jazuras picking off lone TLs and Titans. All that time he shut out Truth but eventually her cries for revenge got too much for him he had to obey.

So here he was. An old Renegade awaiting his last battle.

''Sir all ships prepped for combat.''
''Good, Good we go in thirty Sezuras. Remember yer friends lads, the blokes who died for you to live. For Revenge!'' a cheer went up from the fleet, the understated meaning filled their hearts with ice and their veins with poison. No he ,Berius Trimson ,would not die unknown. Berius felt the kick of the jump and the relax of the exit. The escort fighters pounced on the unsuspecting inhabitants of Argon prime. The comms screen flashed on and the face of Beriuses nemesis ,Ban Danna filled the screen.
''Berius, I wondered when it would come to this.''
''You know im going to kill you Danna.''
''Berius, you will not survive an encounter with me.''
''I don't care Danna I want to die, I hate being this worthless lump of flesh, and Danna it all your fault bec-''
''You make yourself what you are Berius''
''NO DANNA YOU DON'T GET IT DO YOU! You are the one who caused this you killed my squadron! My closest friends! They trusted you like a father, dammit I trusted you like a father, but you didn't wait for them-''
''I had to, there was no choice.''
''There was no need to do ANYTHING, I was there Danna, I pleaded with you but you didn't listen you said it had to be now, another two sezuras and they would have made it, im ashamed I didn't die with them. It was you who made me listen to Truth! Who made me throw those men's lives away in Bret's Memorial. But now Danna it is you who shall die!''

Berius hit the booster, the Truth sped towards the Argon one. Berius had fitted ion cannons to the front turret for this particular battle, and now they served their purpose ripping away the Argon one's shield in seconds. At the same time the Argon one loosed a hornet missile salvo annihilating Truth's shield. So it started, gloves off, every captains nightmare an unshielded bloodbath. The two ships wrestled like celestial gladiators, energy bolts exploded on the side of both ship's hulls. Ban Danna frantically issued orders and battled with command consoles, a sudden jerk of a missile impact sent sparks flying around the Bridge and sent people flying, Ban Danna smashed his head off the command console in front of him, opening a gash on his forehead. He lay there where he fell, bleeding for his sins. Berius felt his ship's pain, all of the impacts all of the fire, he screamed, spraying blood over the fiery tomb that was his bridge.

The support cruiser ''Sight'' came through the West gate just in time to see the explosion. It was a beautiful macabre sight, two plasma generators exploding in sequence. It looked like a cloud of white flame expanding from the centre of the sector. The whole sector was rocked by the shockwave.

The wreckage of the Truth and the Argon one were found intertwined. They never found the bridge of the truth, however they did manage to salvage the Argon one's bridge. Inside the burnt chamber of the bridge sat the hero of a thousand battles, not burnt at all, but cut and bleeding from a hundred thousand wounds. To this day the wreckage stands as a memorial to the men who fought and died in the Bret's Memorial conflict.


Well I think this one is a lot better

[KiwiNZ]

Well I think this one is a lot better

It sure is!!! This is a really good piece of writing! There are a few things like 'one hornet for 625MW shielding in the first battle' in there but in general, this is a great re-write! Now it actually does contain info that was desperately missing in the old version. Well done! If you want to add anything to it elaborate a tad more on the actual capabilities of the Truth.

[Moss]

It is indeed much better, well written and much easier to read with paragraphs . It was also nice to find out that "Truth" a faulty AI chip was infact behind most of the troubles or at least aiding the feelings of the captain and crew, I didn't pick up on that at all last time. I think a little more in depth info on why the Truth wanted this mayhem would have been good, maybe they were aiding each other! but it is an interesting read nontheless.

I'd say you certainly have the imagination to write some good stories and hope you will give us some more.