Brayden

  “I'm going to shunt some auxiliary controls your way so you can take some of the load off of me.” I said as I sent several engineering controls over to Carolina.

  Said engineering settings were set to defaults normally, before the virus I think Hook had been managing them, but ever since I was more than a little gun-shy about it. I don't think the previous parameters had allowed Hook to do anything egregious or I wouldn't still be here, but if the virus had been a little less aggressive I bet it could have shunted power away from weapons at the worst time, or messed with sensors, or any one of hundred minor things that could have cost me the battle.

  So hopefully Carolina would be able to help out without ratcheting my anxiety up through the roof. Well. Higher than it was already. Fighting inside the atmosphere of a gas giant had my guts all the way in my throat already.

  Now what could the others do.

  “Megan, Hwang, Rekki-Ricky, I'm giving you each a link to my drones. They aren't flying but crawling around the surface of the ship, cause I am pretty sure we will lose em if they take off, they don't have the fuel to fly in atmosphere, at least not for long.”

  I did so. I wasn't exactly sure how much Hwang, Megan and Rekki-Ricky could do with them, but it would keep them busy, and the drone-brains were smart enough not to do something stupid if suggested. They could really only help. It wasn't like they were taking direct control and playing an FPS with my drones.

  At least I didn't think that was an option for them.

  “Doctor...” I began. I couldn't really think of anything.

  Doctor Smith blinked, I could tell he was putting himself together after the rude awakening.

  “Give me a readout of your vitals and access to your pharmaceutical administration system. I don't like the fact that you are stressing yourself with a fight like this, that I am almost certain you are going to push yourself to win, but there is no other way, so at least if I can monitor and treat you as things are happening maybe we can avoid further damage.” Doctor Smith said after a moment of getting his game face on, tapping at his panel.

  That was... surprisingly concise. I went to send everything he requested to his terminal but he had already sent a request to my system for most of what he had asked for, so I just okay-ed it and sent it. It was weird having someone else onboard familiar with C.O.G. Technology, but was most certainly not a bad thing.

  “What the hell is going on Brayden?” Hwang asked, overwhelmed by all the data on her screen.

  I quickly switched her screen display to show the main camera from the drone on the outer hull she was commanding, and pushed everything else to the edges so that the data didn't blind her.

  “I picked up two contacts descending on us from above. I started scanning them, and they sent me a message.” I replied.

  “What was it?” Megan replied. SHE was moving windows around on her own, expanding and shrinking them in the display like she had been born to this kind of interface. She wasn't touching the controls herself though, mainly focusing on the data. I could see she had a direct link to Cat-Bot.

  Rekki-Ricky was setting up his display like a... well very much like a hud in a video game. He looked down at the controls. “Could you give me the ability to take control of a drone Captain? I've done a lot of simulators with them.”

  I pondered, and looked up options as I did so, instinctively dropping into a higher reference frame. This had been what I was worried about...

  I could actually, I could engage manual control to the drone with drone brain override if it thought Rekki-Ricky was doing anything harmful to the ship or just plain dumb. I could even set it up as more of a co-pilot funciton, letting the drone brain handle weapons control and plotting of trajectories while Rekki-Ricky piloted. That sounded like a pretty good idea. So I enabled that and sent it over to Rekki-Ricky's console, along with the caveat to assist as much as it could.

  I was concerned, but I also did want the help if they could give it.

  Going back to Megan I played the message.

  “Should've paid for the fuel, you would've lived longer. Maximillion doesen't like it when people try to cheat him on HIS planet.” the voice said, no demands, no questions, just that short statement followed by a rail strike.

  “Shit, they're trying enforce a fuel monopoly over this planet.” Hwang said.

  “That'd be my guess. Haven't been able to get a good sensor lock on them, and as soon as that message came in I hit the Jammers so their shots have been going wide. You know, except for that first one.” I replied.

  “Why aren't you shooting back.” Carolina asked.

  “My weapons are covered as part of the atmospheric protocols.” I said.

  “So why aren't theirs?” Rekki-ricky chimed in.

  “Good question. Hook?” I said.

  “Our atmospheric protocols allow for a much deeper range of atmospheric pressure than a normal vessel, however all modern space vessels allow for pressures of up to one atmosphere to allow landing on habitable planets.” Hook replied helpfully.

  I paused.

  “So we could go deeper than they can.” I asked.

  “Correct. It would also increase the efficiency of our fuel scoops.” Hook replied helpfully.

  I paused and thought.

  “Guys, as much as I'd love to take them out, I think our best bet is to run.” I said to the bridge.

  “Won't they be able to just follow above use and attack when we get back into range? Especially with jammers on?” Carolina said, pointing something out.

  “And if we try to drop jammer's to hide they could just shoot at us from long range.” Megan piped in helpfully.

  “As long as we present no threat they have no reason to break off pursuit Captain Cofey. We need to show them we have teeth and then disappear off their sensors. If destroying them is not an option at least.” Doctor Smith presented his own cold clinical, and somewhat cutthroat view.

  I stopped and thought, and looked.

  There was a storm cell... not near us, but if I goosed the engines we could be there pretty fast.

  “Okay guys, here's the plan...”

  ***********************************************************************************

  I dumped power to the drives and we sped along the clouds, the sunlight filtering in from above making the scenery around us majestic...

  Ruined only by the occasional contrails of rail shots slamming down past us, tearing the fluffy clouds into short lived cyclonic monsters.

  I swear I got the most poetic when things were trying to kill me.

  Of course, with my drives running as hot as I was, the clouds were not surviving long after I flew through them, the superheated plasma dispersed them into clouds of steam and rain as I went along.

  The ship shook as I darted out from one bank of clouds to another, exposing myself visually for the first time since I had brought up the jammer's, and immediately paid for it as a railgun struck me square on, causing my out hull to crumple inwards in yet another location.

  “Shit!” Exclaimed Hwang.

  “They're targeting you old school, using camera's and telescopes!” Rekki-Ricky said.

  With how high my reference frame was accelerated it actually sounded like nonsense but I had pulled a script to give me a text readout of what everyone was saying so I wouldn't be distracted. I was not running in the highest reference frame, but it was enough that it was causing communication problems. I was juggling a lot of different things at once right now, but Rekki-Ricky brought up a good point...

  And he had something on his screen.

  I swapped to Rekki-Ricky's view, and saw that in addition to holding on for dear life, his drone had tilted it's main camera upwards, and he was attempting to track our assailants visually.

  He had managed to get several good shots of at least one of them when we had revealed ourselves.

  I grabbed the images and sent them to everyone.

  “Anyone recognize these?” I asked.

  I was honestly too busy flying the ship, managing the jammer's(which I was now focusing on the direction Rekki-Ricky had provided) to bother looking through any records, and now I was adding an extra navigational task of keeping us in thick clouds to obscure their vision, so it didn't surprise me that one of them was able to discover what kind of ship it was before me. Even Hook was swamped.

  “It looks like a... corvette. One of the cheaper free trader combat vessels.” Dr. Smith said as he brought up data on the ship.

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  I mentally went through the different sizes of ship. I think Hook was classified as a cruiser, then below that was destroyer, then below that was a frigate, then below that was a corvette... though capability varied wildly within those, there was a general tonnage range for each.

  “Just two corvette's attacking a ship our size? Confident aren't they.” I replied.

  “With our weapons covered we look like a big ole unarmed transport. Especially with that big belly of ours.” Carolina said, referring to the manufactory.

  “But we're C.O.G. Shouldn't they know we can change the shape of our ships?” I asked.

  “Not many people know much about the tech of the other factions, it's mostly ghost stories and superstition, like C.O.G. Folk are just berzerkers in disguise, the alliance is run by the grey's, and the imperials are secretly getting orders from earth to control everything in the new world.” Megan piped up. She was directing her drone like some kind of RTS or top down shooter, moving it over the hull and positioning it where it had the best field of view as I whipped the ship back and forth in the air currents.

  I was rather impressed with how well the drones were hanging on in the wind.

  “So they think we're just some fat transport trying to get better margins by scooping the gas giant instead of buying their fuel... Bet they aren't going to expect this then.” I said as we exited the cloud we were currently using for cover.

  Across the horizon in front of us stretched a massive black cloud, roiling, occasionally flashing bright as lightning struck across it's layers.

  I shuddered as I had a flashback to another dark entity that stretched as far as they eye could see.

  I shook it off and dived the ship towards the storm. The ship shuddered as another hail of Railfire came at us, one shot of the salvo managing to impact, but I was unconcerned. The hull had already fully repaired the previous hits we had received.

  It was almost like this was the kind of damage the self repairing hull had been designed to mitigate.

  We slipped into the storm and I killed the Jammers, theoretically allowing them to freely target us now with their own sensor arrays.

  However, the electrical activity in the storm was washing us out, our own sensors could barely tell what was within a kilometer of us, so actually detecting us while we were within it was a fool's errand.

  Of course, it didn't come without consequence.

  “I'm losing my drone!” Hwang said.

  Looking at where she was, I could see the drone she was controlling had gotten two of it's tentacles ripped off where they had been bracing against the hull, actually having torn chunks out of said hull, and both tendrils were now flailing in the wind, acting like a sail.

  “Retract! Burrow into the hull!” I told her and transmitted to the drones themselves.

  I instinctively told the ship what to do, and three pockmarks opened up under the drones, letting them settle in like little blisters on the ships surface, only their sensors poking out.

  “That was close!” Hwang said.

  I nodded, or tried to, instead the ship bounced up and down.

  “Yes. But I don't detect any more fire... Do you think they are still waiting for us?” I asked, waiting for a tense moment.

  “I would be.” Rekki-Ricky said, breaking the silence. eyes still glued to the screen, a manic grin crossing his face.

  “It's not like this maneuver is unknown, using charged gas to hide your ship is a tactic as old as time... Or at least, you know, as old as space warfare. If I were them I'd circle above us and try to wait us out till the damage from the storm forces us up.” Rekki-Ricky continued.

  “What damage?” I asked. The winds were pretty severe, but it wasn't like there was anything to slam into, and our ship was so smooth there was nothing for the wind to catch... wait...

  “Other ships wouldn't have the atmospheric smoothing... they'd take damage every moment they were in the storm wouldn't they.” I said, answering my own question, to a nod from both Carolina and Rekki-Ricky.

  “Correct. Most imperial ships are strictly disallowed from entering atmosphere unless there is a starport and an active weather service to guide us down, it is way too easy to get caught in a freak storm and have one of your guns ripped off, or be slammed into the ground and lose something you cannot replace. Weather is no joke.” Carolina said, adjusting one of my capacitors that had gotten a sudden spike of power.

  Speaking of.

  “Also... is it considered common that we are taking no damage from all of these lightning strikes?” I asked.

  I hadn't even noticed it at first, so focused I had been on getting into the storm and checking on things, but we were taking regular lightning strikes every ten seconds or so, the lightning discharging into the hull. As I watched an arc of white-hot plasma crawled across the hull and over one of the drones, but it seemed perfectly fine.

  “Nope.” Carolina replied, unhelpfully. In her defense she seemed to be very involved in balancing power levels as they were spiking wildly all across her display.

  “I can answer that Captain Cofey.” Hook said.

  “Part of the atmospheric adaptations allow for the capturing of electrical discharges from atmosphere into the ships power systems. This is normally meant to help equalize static charges, but in this case, with Chief Engineer Carolina's assistance in balancing the power systems, it is also eliminating any damage we might otherwise suffer to our electrical system.”

  “What about the hull? Those things are hot, shouldn't it be melting?” I asked.

  “C.O.G. Weaponry is all plasma based, much like lightning. Our weapons however reach much higher temperatures and use much more concentrated gas. Our hull is designed to take much more impactful plasma as a matter of course through disagreements with other C.O.G. Members. Therefore, our hull should suffer only minor damage from such strikes. In point of fact we are suffering damage, however with your current reference frame it is being repaired before you even look at the notification Captain.” Hook stated.

  I paused and watched. We were taking a lightning strike every few seconds, but unless I actually focused at the moment of impact I barely noticed it. In fact now that I did notice it, it kind of tickled.

  And Hook was right, the damage Healed over very quickly, it actually seemed like most of the lightning discharge went around our hull and continued the lightning bolt out the other side, making us just another node in the lightning's path.

  Pretty... I didn't expect it to be pretty.

  “What did you say Brayden?” Carolina asked. Looking up and around. It had been several minutes since we had taken any weapons fire and people were starting to breathe normally again.

  I didn't realize I had said it over the PA.

  “I said it looks pretty.” I replied hesitantly.

  “What does?” She pressed.

  I put a feed of what I was seeing up on... each of their displays, as I realized we didn't actually have a main display on the bridge... which made sense for C.O.G. Design sensibilities, but it did hamper me in situations like this.

  I heard a gasp as lightning struck us and the other's watched.

  “That IS pretty.” Hwang said aloud. I belatedly realized SHE was the one who had gasped.

  Huh... hadn't expected that from her.

  “Tell me you are recording this.” Rekki-Ricky said.

  I took a beat.

  I hadn't thought about it.

  “I am now.” I said back.

  Considering what I had heard about C.O.G. Culture maybe opening up my C.O.G social media profile with gorgeous shots of getting struck by lightning would help my standing with them.

  Couldn't hurt.

  Rekki-Ricky chuckled.

  “Okay, so we're hidden we think? What now?” Megan asked.

  I was about to reply when my sensors screamed at me, as something much bigger than the corvette's we'd seen zipped past us through the clouds, at least frigate sized if not larger. As I watched lightning ripped at it, each bolt illuminating a a pale sphere that surrounded it. If I was looking at it with normal eyes I'm sure I'd have after images burned into my retina's from the brightness.

  “The hell is that?” I asked.

  “Never seen shields before?” Carolina piped in. I was still streaming a view of our ship to everyone. That might be just a good rule of thumb in general.

  “No, actually. The berzerker's didn't use them and I haven't fought much else.” I said.

  “Well we're about to. Release the drones, we need to be able to shoot back!” Ricky-Rekki said.

  “Wait.” I replied.

  I focused on the new thick enemy ship as it lumbered past us and into the clouds, quickly becoming obscured by the mist, but I could still see the flash of it's shields as it took repeated lightning hits.

  The glowing shield started coming back our way, and I got a cruel idea.