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Ambuscade
© 2020 by Walter Reimer
Thumbnail art by
rabbi-tom
The Confed cruiser phased out of hyperspace, followed within seconds by two Colonial ships that immediately opened fire. The Ublyudok executed a number of evasive maneuvers, returning fire as the opportunity presented itself while its sensors searched nearby space for Captain Nguyen’s prey.
The deck shook under the rat femme’s feet. “Damage,” Sander said.
“Two percent power falloff,” the damage control officer reported. “Compensating.” The caracal gave the rat a worried glance, his tall ears twitching in the Captain’s direction. “Damage to the hull’s not severe,” he said aloud, an unspoken “yet” hanging in midair.
“Keep me advised,” she said, casting a wary eye at the stallion in the center seat.
Nguyen met her gaze, scowled and returned to glaring at the repeater. His quarry had flown, outphasing, running on reaction drive – the exhaust trail was blatantly obvious on sensors – and phasing back into hyperspace in a random direction before the Terran ship could intercept her. The mare had some military training, the rat guessed.
And the way she had hit all of Nguyen’s targets so rapidly had caused Sander to give the Colonial a measure of respect.
“Damn!” and the stallion raised a leg and kicked the repeater screen. It was hardened against a lot of abuse, but the hoof managed to crack the frame. “Sensors! Track her and pass the course to Helm!”
The officer complied, and Sander took a breath. “Captain?” Her tone was measured, professional; a subordinate trying to impart bad news to a superior.
“What?” His tone was sulky, loaded with barely-restrained rage.
She pitched her voice lower as the crew continued fighting the battle that clearly wasn’t on Nguyen’s mind. “Sir, we have two ships picking at us, and they’re wearing us down. There are more Colonial ships headed for us.” Tariano’s ears perked and he almost started shouting at her, but she raised a paw, palm outward. “I know, you want her dead, but Regulations force me to remind you that you can’t allow us to get destroyed just to get her.” She took a breath. “Any further orders to pursue would be unreasonable.”
He looked up at her.
And slowly smiled, and it was an unpleasant expression.
“File a report when we get back,” he muttered. “If I don’t space you before then.” He raised his voice. “Helm! You have her?”
“Yes, Sir!”
“Disengage and pursue. Inphase when we’re clear.”
As the Ublyudok fought its way clear, Sander looked around the Bridge, making sure that everything was still in order and the ship was managing to hold together.
She met the wolverine’s gaze.
***
Radiation and subatomic particles sleeted off the Kiss Me in the Dark’s hull as the freighter outphased. A moment later, its reaction drives fired and it started moving.
“Are you sure you want to do this? Captain?” Jemel Fikset asked.
Meredith smiled at him. “Never been in the Navy, Jemel?” The wolf shook his head and the mare said, “You look for and exploit every advantage. Our biggest advantage here is that Tari’s always too angry, and it doesn’t take much to get him going.”
“Slim chance to hang your hopes on,” Jemel muttered.
The mare sighed. “I know, but it’s all we have. “Trust me, if we had anything else – “
“Hyperspace wake, inbound our position,” Jemel said. “Power surge.”
“Are we in position?”
He nodded.
“Christina?”
“Ready.”
***
The Confed ship came out of hyperspace, and proximity and collision alarms began blaring before the shields had time to go up. The freighter that had led them on a merry chase was less than five thousand kilometers from the cruiser’s bow and closing at full speed.
“Radical evasive!” Sander shouted, and the Helm, to his credit, acted quickly. The ship transitioned along its negative-z axis, rolling as its defensive shields started to activate. The primaries were still charging, and the freighter passed along the Ublyudok’s length too close for the secondaries’ targeting sensors to compensate.
As the Kiss Me in the Dark moved away, the Ublyudok pitched, bringing its bow and its primaries to bear on the Colonial ship.
“What the fuck is she doing?” Nguyen asked. Sensors showed a variety of objects falling away from the freighter.
“Dropping mass for speed, maybe?” his Exec asked. Sander was mystified as well.
The stallion snorted. “Like that’ll help. Desperation move.” He waved to the communications officer. “Give me a channel.”
“Open, Sir.”
“Gotcha, cunt.”
There was a pause, and then the elusive mare said, “Filly, you couldn’t catch the clap in the worst brothel on Ares – and I know you tried.”
He kicked his repeater in frustration, and this time he did smash the screen. “Get me a firing solution on her!”
“Sir, one of those cargo pods is going to collide – “
“Our shields will handle it. Weapons! I want that ship dead!”
***
The two chemicals that had Meredith so upset at Oda Station had been nicknamed ‘Devil’s Venom’ centuries ago. They were aptly named; either of the two was flammable, poisonous, corrosive, and carcinogenic. Combined, they exploded without requiring oxygen or an ignition source, and as a result of their hypergolic properties, even after all the intervening centuries the two chemicals had been useful as reaction mass for sublight spacecraft.
***
Ginny had taken control of the tanks’ thruster packs as soon as the cargo crew had jettisoned it. The rabbit doe was demonstrating a deft paw at the controls, letting the tanks increase their velocity gradually while making it look like it was simply drifting in space.
She had her full attention fixed on the sensor display. “One hundred meters . . . fifty . . . thirty, twenty – “
Unconsciously, Meredith’s paws clenched into fists.
“Full power, Ginny. Make him eat it.”
The rabbit grinned like a feral predator and shoved the thrust controls all the way open.
At twelve point seven meters from the Ublyudok’s main targeting sensor array, the thruster packs overloaded and exploded, simultaneously rupturing both tanks and igniting their contents. The combined one thousand tons of chemicals made for an entertaining display, if anyone was watching.
Meredith said, “Evasive, Jemel, any way you want to go.” She touched her headset. “Everyone, we just got the jump on our friend and set off a bomb. Hopefully we’ve earned a bit of time while they blow their noses and blink. We’re going to start a roll now. Christina?”
“Yeah?”
“Stand by to vent the whiskey.”
“Captain, Jax here.”
“Go ahead.”
“A few furs down here had an idea,” the rat said. “Another bomb.”
“Oh?” Jemel, Elroy and Ginny paused to look at her with questioning looks on their faces. “What?”
“The hyperdrive’s not going to be much use for another few hours – “
“Wait a minute.” The palomino mare swallowed.
Hard.
“You’re wanting to use the antimatter?” she finally asked.
“Well, we’re not using it right now,” the rat said.
“If it works, we won’t be able to get home,” Ginny pointed out.
Jax replied, “If it doesn’t, we’re dead. If it works, I have the same sensor data you do up there – we have help coming, and we might just buy ourselves some more time.” A pause. “Captain?”
Meredith sat in her chair, staring unseeing at the main display as she considered options. Finally she sat up straighter and said, “Do it. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll let us ambush him again. But promise me something.”
“Yes?”
“For the love of Deus, be careful.”
***
With its primary weapons sensors blinded, the Ublyudok’s fire was expended against space as the Kiss Me in the Dark moved away at right angles to its original course. Damage control was prioritizing repairs to the array, with assurances that they wouldn’t miss the next time they had the bothersome freighter in its sights.
Sander Haruko found herself smiling sourly. “Not bad,” she whispered to herself, admitting that the unknown mare aboard the old freighter had so far handled things well, considering the disparity between the two ships.
The ship shook and she felt suddenly queasy. “Damage to the hull, starboard quarter,” the damage control officer reported. “Fluctuations in the artigrav; we’re trying to realign the network. Shields holding – “
“Evasive, pattern H-4,” the rat femme said crisply. “Use the secondaries until we get primary targeting back.” She caught a motion out of the corner of her eye and saw Nguyen hunch forward in his seat, and she huffed a breath before turning to look at the Political Officer.
He nodded, once; just a slight inclination of his head.
“Sensors,” Sander said, “Status?”
“We’re engaged with two Colonials. Three more are approaching through hyperspace, ETA four minutes.”
“With five ships,” the Weapons Officer said, “they’ll be able to box us in.”
The rat nodded. “Captain, I recommend we break off and get out of here.”
Tariano Nguyen twisted around in his seat and snarled, “You’re relieved, Commander. Get your coward ass off my Bridge.” He turned his back on her as the main weapons sensors came back online. “There – “
The Hassoni E-12 pistol was the standard sidearm for all Confederate Naval personnel. Drawing from a power cell in the grip, it fired an enhanced coherent beam of charged particles. Depending on the power setting and adjustments to its focusing lens, its range varied from one to fifteen meters.
Sander was less than two meters away from Tariano Nguyen’s back.
The Bridge crew flinched at the harsh whip-crack of displaced air as the rat fired, the beam slicing through the stallion’s uniform, flesh, bone, and heart before erupting from his chest and finally attenuating. The stallion flinched forward, looking down at the exit wound, paws reaching to grope at the neatly cauterized hole.
Before he gave a soft groan and pitched forward onto the deck.
“I am in command now,” the rat announced as she holstered her pistol. To the helmsfur she said, “Evasive, pattern D. Weapons, lay down dispersal fire. As soon as we’re clear, get us inphased and set course back to Base.” The crew sat there for a moment, blinking at her until her orders and the new state of affairs finally registered.
The Ublyudok spun and pivoted, fending off the attempts to stop it before it managed to fight itself away from its harriers and escape.
Security ratings were carrying the body of Tariano Nguyen out of the compartment and Sander walked up to the Political Officer. “I had to do it,” she said in a low voice. “He was endangering the ship.”
The wolverine leaned in close. “I agree. It shall be in my report.”
Sander smiled. “I serve Holy Terra,” she whispered.
The Vicar of the Order matched her smile. “That, too, will be in my report.”
***
Jemel blinked, stared at the main display, and blinked again. “C- Meredith?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I see it too.” She reached for her headset. “Jax?”
“Yeah, Captain?”
“Stop fiddling with the antimatter.”
“Stop?”
“Stop. They’ve fucked off into hyperspace.” The mare sat back as a chorus of whoops and cheers were heard over the intercom system.
The wolf waved at her. “Message from the Aster, Captain.” He paused, listening. “They want to know if we’re all right.”
“T – “ She had to stop and take a few breaths, tears of relief springing into her eyes. “T-Tell them that we – we’re okay,” and she swallowed hard, “and that we’ll be rejoining the convoy. Thank them, Jemel.” As the wolf happily complied, she asked, “Christina?”
“Yeah, Merry?”
“Great job, every one of you. Drinks are on me when we get to port.” She took her headset off and stood up.
She had to take two tries before she rose on shaky hooves.
“Where are you going?” Elroy asked.
The mare paused, a paw on the doorframe, and looked back at the beagle.
“I need to pee.”
© 2020 by Walter Reimer
Thumbnail art by
rabbi-tomThe Confed cruiser phased out of hyperspace, followed within seconds by two Colonial ships that immediately opened fire. The Ublyudok executed a number of evasive maneuvers, returning fire as the opportunity presented itself while its sensors searched nearby space for Captain Nguyen’s prey.
The deck shook under the rat femme’s feet. “Damage,” Sander said.
“Two percent power falloff,” the damage control officer reported. “Compensating.” The caracal gave the rat a worried glance, his tall ears twitching in the Captain’s direction. “Damage to the hull’s not severe,” he said aloud, an unspoken “yet” hanging in midair.
“Keep me advised,” she said, casting a wary eye at the stallion in the center seat.
Nguyen met her gaze, scowled and returned to glaring at the repeater. His quarry had flown, outphasing, running on reaction drive – the exhaust trail was blatantly obvious on sensors – and phasing back into hyperspace in a random direction before the Terran ship could intercept her. The mare had some military training, the rat guessed.
And the way she had hit all of Nguyen’s targets so rapidly had caused Sander to give the Colonial a measure of respect.
“Damn!” and the stallion raised a leg and kicked the repeater screen. It was hardened against a lot of abuse, but the hoof managed to crack the frame. “Sensors! Track her and pass the course to Helm!”
The officer complied, and Sander took a breath. “Captain?” Her tone was measured, professional; a subordinate trying to impart bad news to a superior.
“What?” His tone was sulky, loaded with barely-restrained rage.
She pitched her voice lower as the crew continued fighting the battle that clearly wasn’t on Nguyen’s mind. “Sir, we have two ships picking at us, and they’re wearing us down. There are more Colonial ships headed for us.” Tariano’s ears perked and he almost started shouting at her, but she raised a paw, palm outward. “I know, you want her dead, but Regulations force me to remind you that you can’t allow us to get destroyed just to get her.” She took a breath. “Any further orders to pursue would be unreasonable.”
He looked up at her.
And slowly smiled, and it was an unpleasant expression.
“File a report when we get back,” he muttered. “If I don’t space you before then.” He raised his voice. “Helm! You have her?”
“Yes, Sir!”
“Disengage and pursue. Inphase when we’re clear.”
As the Ublyudok fought its way clear, Sander looked around the Bridge, making sure that everything was still in order and the ship was managing to hold together.
She met the wolverine’s gaze.
***
Radiation and subatomic particles sleeted off the Kiss Me in the Dark’s hull as the freighter outphased. A moment later, its reaction drives fired and it started moving.
“Are you sure you want to do this? Captain?” Jemel Fikset asked.
Meredith smiled at him. “Never been in the Navy, Jemel?” The wolf shook his head and the mare said, “You look for and exploit every advantage. Our biggest advantage here is that Tari’s always too angry, and it doesn’t take much to get him going.”
“Slim chance to hang your hopes on,” Jemel muttered.
The mare sighed. “I know, but it’s all we have. “Trust me, if we had anything else – “
“Hyperspace wake, inbound our position,” Jemel said. “Power surge.”
“Are we in position?”
He nodded.
“Christina?”
“Ready.”
***
The Confed ship came out of hyperspace, and proximity and collision alarms began blaring before the shields had time to go up. The freighter that had led them on a merry chase was less than five thousand kilometers from the cruiser’s bow and closing at full speed.
“Radical evasive!” Sander shouted, and the Helm, to his credit, acted quickly. The ship transitioned along its negative-z axis, rolling as its defensive shields started to activate. The primaries were still charging, and the freighter passed along the Ublyudok’s length too close for the secondaries’ targeting sensors to compensate.
As the Kiss Me in the Dark moved away, the Ublyudok pitched, bringing its bow and its primaries to bear on the Colonial ship.
“What the fuck is she doing?” Nguyen asked. Sensors showed a variety of objects falling away from the freighter.
“Dropping mass for speed, maybe?” his Exec asked. Sander was mystified as well.
The stallion snorted. “Like that’ll help. Desperation move.” He waved to the communications officer. “Give me a channel.”
“Open, Sir.”
“Gotcha, cunt.”
There was a pause, and then the elusive mare said, “Filly, you couldn’t catch the clap in the worst brothel on Ares – and I know you tried.”
He kicked his repeater in frustration, and this time he did smash the screen. “Get me a firing solution on her!”
“Sir, one of those cargo pods is going to collide – “
“Our shields will handle it. Weapons! I want that ship dead!”
***
The two chemicals that had Meredith so upset at Oda Station had been nicknamed ‘Devil’s Venom’ centuries ago. They were aptly named; either of the two was flammable, poisonous, corrosive, and carcinogenic. Combined, they exploded without requiring oxygen or an ignition source, and as a result of their hypergolic properties, even after all the intervening centuries the two chemicals had been useful as reaction mass for sublight spacecraft.
***
Ginny had taken control of the tanks’ thruster packs as soon as the cargo crew had jettisoned it. The rabbit doe was demonstrating a deft paw at the controls, letting the tanks increase their velocity gradually while making it look like it was simply drifting in space.
She had her full attention fixed on the sensor display. “One hundred meters . . . fifty . . . thirty, twenty – “
Unconsciously, Meredith’s paws clenched into fists.
“Full power, Ginny. Make him eat it.”
The rabbit grinned like a feral predator and shoved the thrust controls all the way open.
At twelve point seven meters from the Ublyudok’s main targeting sensor array, the thruster packs overloaded and exploded, simultaneously rupturing both tanks and igniting their contents. The combined one thousand tons of chemicals made for an entertaining display, if anyone was watching.
Meredith said, “Evasive, Jemel, any way you want to go.” She touched her headset. “Everyone, we just got the jump on our friend and set off a bomb. Hopefully we’ve earned a bit of time while they blow their noses and blink. We’re going to start a roll now. Christina?”
“Yeah?”
“Stand by to vent the whiskey.”
“Captain, Jax here.”
“Go ahead.”
“A few furs down here had an idea,” the rat said. “Another bomb.”
“Oh?” Jemel, Elroy and Ginny paused to look at her with questioning looks on their faces. “What?”
“The hyperdrive’s not going to be much use for another few hours – “
“Wait a minute.” The palomino mare swallowed.
Hard.
“You’re wanting to use the antimatter?” she finally asked.
“Well, we’re not using it right now,” the rat said.
“If it works, we won’t be able to get home,” Ginny pointed out.
Jax replied, “If it doesn’t, we’re dead. If it works, I have the same sensor data you do up there – we have help coming, and we might just buy ourselves some more time.” A pause. “Captain?”
Meredith sat in her chair, staring unseeing at the main display as she considered options. Finally she sat up straighter and said, “Do it. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll let us ambush him again. But promise me something.”
“Yes?”
“For the love of Deus, be careful.”
***
With its primary weapons sensors blinded, the Ublyudok’s fire was expended against space as the Kiss Me in the Dark moved away at right angles to its original course. Damage control was prioritizing repairs to the array, with assurances that they wouldn’t miss the next time they had the bothersome freighter in its sights.
Sander Haruko found herself smiling sourly. “Not bad,” she whispered to herself, admitting that the unknown mare aboard the old freighter had so far handled things well, considering the disparity between the two ships.
The ship shook and she felt suddenly queasy. “Damage to the hull, starboard quarter,” the damage control officer reported. “Fluctuations in the artigrav; we’re trying to realign the network. Shields holding – “
“Evasive, pattern H-4,” the rat femme said crisply. “Use the secondaries until we get primary targeting back.” She caught a motion out of the corner of her eye and saw Nguyen hunch forward in his seat, and she huffed a breath before turning to look at the Political Officer.
He nodded, once; just a slight inclination of his head.
“Sensors,” Sander said, “Status?”
“We’re engaged with two Colonials. Three more are approaching through hyperspace, ETA four minutes.”
“With five ships,” the Weapons Officer said, “they’ll be able to box us in.”
The rat nodded. “Captain, I recommend we break off and get out of here.”
Tariano Nguyen twisted around in his seat and snarled, “You’re relieved, Commander. Get your coward ass off my Bridge.” He turned his back on her as the main weapons sensors came back online. “There – “
The Hassoni E-12 pistol was the standard sidearm for all Confederate Naval personnel. Drawing from a power cell in the grip, it fired an enhanced coherent beam of charged particles. Depending on the power setting and adjustments to its focusing lens, its range varied from one to fifteen meters.
Sander was less than two meters away from Tariano Nguyen’s back.
The Bridge crew flinched at the harsh whip-crack of displaced air as the rat fired, the beam slicing through the stallion’s uniform, flesh, bone, and heart before erupting from his chest and finally attenuating. The stallion flinched forward, looking down at the exit wound, paws reaching to grope at the neatly cauterized hole.
Before he gave a soft groan and pitched forward onto the deck.
“I am in command now,” the rat announced as she holstered her pistol. To the helmsfur she said, “Evasive, pattern D. Weapons, lay down dispersal fire. As soon as we’re clear, get us inphased and set course back to Base.” The crew sat there for a moment, blinking at her until her orders and the new state of affairs finally registered.
The Ublyudok spun and pivoted, fending off the attempts to stop it before it managed to fight itself away from its harriers and escape.
Security ratings were carrying the body of Tariano Nguyen out of the compartment and Sander walked up to the Political Officer. “I had to do it,” she said in a low voice. “He was endangering the ship.”
The wolverine leaned in close. “I agree. It shall be in my report.”
Sander smiled. “I serve Holy Terra,” she whispered.
The Vicar of the Order matched her smile. “That, too, will be in my report.”
***
Jemel blinked, stared at the main display, and blinked again. “C- Meredith?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I see it too.” She reached for her headset. “Jax?”
“Yeah, Captain?”
“Stop fiddling with the antimatter.”
“Stop?”
“Stop. They’ve fucked off into hyperspace.” The mare sat back as a chorus of whoops and cheers were heard over the intercom system.
The wolf waved at her. “Message from the Aster, Captain.” He paused, listening. “They want to know if we’re all right.”
“T – “ She had to stop and take a few breaths, tears of relief springing into her eyes. “T-Tell them that we – we’re okay,” and she swallowed hard, “and that we’ll be rejoining the convoy. Thank them, Jemel.” As the wolf happily complied, she asked, “Christina?”
“Yeah, Merry?”
“Great job, every one of you. Drinks are on me when we get to port.” She took her headset off and stood up.
She had to take two tries before she rose on shaky hooves.
“Where are you going?” Elroy asked.
The mare paused, a paw on the doorframe, and looked back at the beagle.
“I need to pee.”
Category Story / General Furry Art
Species Horse
Size 74 x 120px
File Size 52 kB
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