OUTFLANK
A stream of Zell spikes, radioactive rocks that look like broken stalactites, moved to intercept the Red Destiny. The Spikes ranged in size from a meter to twenty meters in length. The density of the spike field made it almost impossible for any ship to pass through unscathed and they had sophisticated homing ability.
"Can We Avoid?",Alexander Asked.
"45 seconds until loss of containment.", Fae Answered
“That means ‘no’” Alexander said to himself… okay, stay on course.
It was a gamble. A Zell spike field crossing was difficult to pull of even for Fae. And she had 6 additional ships in formation.
Companion class fighters relied on a synergy between a human pilot and computer. No human could think fast enough to perform many of the maneuvers, so the pilot would orchestrate the navigation by signaling a series of pre programmed maneuvers that the Computer would execute. It worked well for techniques like the After Image technique which required precise timing, but the system didn't compare to Fae... that's another reason why a Companion Class ship is usually operated with six crew members.
The remainder of the cavalry expertly dodged the first wave of spikes, using lateral exceed to dodge the larger ones. The density was so great that they relied on the deflector shields to bat away the smaller spikes. It was a bumpy ride. The companions were tossed about.
A second wave approached and the density was greater. Two escort ships exploded one after another. One suffered a minor failure in her exceed engine normally a minor setback it was fatal in this case… the escort reduced speed and reversed to escape the spikes never to be seen again.
They pushed on. At the end of the wave three ships had been lost or destroyed.
"Twenty Seconds until loss of containment." Fae reported as she dove the Red Destiny into the third and final spike field.
Confusion was so great inside the final spike field that Fae and Alexander could not monitor the other ships. The Red Destiny was buffeted and damaged by a few smaller spikes, at one point Fae squeezed the ship between two spikes so close together that the Red Destiny scraped it's dorsal and ventral sections. The damage made the Red Destiny harder to control and The Red Destiny had two more very close calls.
As Fae's eyes darted back and forth no more than Six degrees at unhuman speeds. She was operating at her limit. Fae noticed something as they approached the end of the third wave. Then her eyes moved to a position twenty degrees portward, there was the end of the third spike wave and she noticed something else, but was under too much load to explain it to Alexander.
The Spike Wave ended suddenly. And The Red Destiny immediately began to veer off course in the wrong direction.
"What Happened?", Alexander Asked?
"A trap. We in a tractor", Fae Reported. She cut the boosters and greatly reduced the output of the main thruster. The Red Destiny
The Two other escorts were also caught in other tractor beams and one of them had already reached the source of the tractor beam and was completely destroyed.
Slowly The Red Destiny was pulled to her death.
"Ten seconds until the loss of containment.", Fae Reported.
Alexander shook with unease. He was so close to the Flagship now that if he could get beyond the flagship the battle would be decisive. He punched his armchair in frustration. "Prepare to fire from here." A cannon fire from this position would truly wreck the Zell fleet but the win wouldn’t be decicive… the rest of the fleet would have to slog it out in a messy fight and hindsight would correctly frame Alexander for shunning the escape fold plan of Mudds.
One more escort emerged late from the spikes…. It was the ship that had a malfunction in its exceed engine and it was barreling through the spikes using a giant spatial distortion cone running at a power level that would sap the craft of any power in minutes. Spikes bounced in every direction and then the cone unraveled likely due to its generation mechanisms being overused. The last free escort’s reaction control system puffed and wined aligning the ship perfectly to super boost right into the tractor confinement beam holding the red destiny. And that bisection cancelled the second half of the beam… and the hero escort was pulled into the mouth of the Zell tractor ship never to be seen again.
the Red Destiny was once again free and motion and maneuvering authority was totally restored. The tractor beam was the last major obstacle and Alexander and Fae knew it. Now simply to cast aside a few pebbles and wreck the Zell for good.
Fae pushed the booster to beyond max… she was now required to vent energy from the Tzo matrix at all times to keep it stable and might as well turn that excess into propulsion…. A large battle ship moved to hinder The Red Destiny but with no effort Fae activated the Razon shields and split the thing in two. Many shocked Zell floated in between the cleft portion and applauded before the entire thing exploded.
Then… there was the flagship…. The Red Destiny whizzed by twisting and turning around every energy blast that it sprayed in desperate panic.
On passing the side of the flagship the red destiny cut her engines and made a tight 180 turn as if being yanked by a gravimechtron…. She drifted another 1000m as she slowed and aimed the main cannon directly at the aft portion of her prey.
“Prepare cannon” Alexander commanded. Many activities on the ship stopped as many others came to life…. The throat of the ship housed the main cannon and its smooth exterior paneling slid back to reveal complicated mechanisms. 12 giant super capacitors 6 on each side began to protrude from the ship… they seemed to already be absorbing energy. Below the bridge a hatch dropped open and the tip of a barrel extended. At the same time the aft portion main booster widened in a configuration that favored flow over agility. In general the sleek look of the ship gave way to ugly vents hatches and sliding panels exposing technology that looked as if it was about to burst.
Energy started to coalesce in front of the barrel… and in a moment a small sphere of power began to grow.
The core was quite loud now and the red Destiny shook as if powerful energy could not be contained anymore. All the readings in the bridge seemed to be glowing brighter than ever. The energy sphere in front of the ship was about a meter in diameter and growing rapidly. It was bright to the point that unprotected eyes would be blinded. Fae, continued to dodge bolt fire, loose spikes and Zell marines.
"Five Seconds until loss of containment," Fae reported.
Alexander pressed a button on his comm link signaling the entire fleet. "All main cannons link to my trigger! Maximum Power, Wide Angle"
The energy sphere was quite large and volatile at this point, about 10 meters in diameter. Alexander looked on the Tzo crystal display as the crystal mass began to consume itself rapidly.
A large red button emerged out of a compartment hiding inAlexander's right arm chair.
"One Second until--", Fae Began to report.
Alexander Interrupted: "FIRE!", he brought down his right fist like a hammer hit the red button with great force.
From the power sphere a parabola of anti-matter energy began to flow. The power of it was something unseen by human kind or Zell ever before. The energy ripped through the undefended flank of the Zell ships like they were paper.
From the other side of the battle plane, the Ronin fleet dropped its sheilds and fired a simultaneous blast pointing directly toward the Red Destiny. Where the two blasts met the Zell ships were crushed to nothing more than atoms. The parabola emanating from the Red Destiny was quite a bit stronger. Energy seemed to spill and surround the Ronin fleet, but the calculations were sound and the Ronin fleet suffered no friendly fire.
As the blast continued the energy sphere in front of the Red Destiny decreased in size. The powerful flow of energy began to lessen. It diminished even more as the energy sphere shrank. The Parabola began to softly collapse to a narrow beam of high intensity light, the beam decayed rapidly the moment after it appeared and for a split second the brightest light ever witnessed by humans or zell looked like the narrow beam of light that a cheap flashlight produces. And then it was gone.
Where there was a Zell fleet a moment ago, nothing but a giant ball of hot plasma remained.