Sliding Reality: Chapter 6 Part 2 of 5 (Patreon)

Dana jumped into her bot aboard the Hoplite, stepping out of her captain’s quarters and into the bridge.

[Asteroid Eater under Attack]

[Defend]

[00:42:17]

“Talk to me.” She said on Local, Klinsky and Leblanc running through their systems.

Ayambe’s bot lay dormant to the side of the room.

Dana bit down on her grimace.

“Two Destroyers, three Frigates, Six Corvettes, eighty seven hellcats, one hundred and twenty nine dropships.” Leblanc snapped off through gritted teeth. “We caught them on the defense network. There wasn’t anyone manning the sensors. I was just randomly looking and I caught them.”

Dana pulled up her map, the hologram showing the fleet and Sanctorium’s position.

Ayambe’s bot twitched as she jumped in.

“Sorry I’m late.”

Dana looked at her. “Glad to have you Ayambe, get me Minnie if you can.”

“Yes Admiral.”

“Leblanc, time till they reach Sanctorium?”

“Fifteen minutes.”

“Well that’s cutting it close.”

“I have Minnie for you Admiral.”

“Contact the other ships, see what we’re looking like for crew, I want everyone completely reloaded. Send Minnie to me.”

“Aye aye.”

“Dana?” Minnie said in her ear.

“Minnie, what is the status of the three corvettes you finished today?”

“I had them loaded to bear and their weapons attached. I took it out of our ammunition stockpiles.”

“Thank the stars for that, are there bots aboard to fight them?”

“Yes, only a few, I’ll get some more bots shipped over to them.”

“We don’t have the time. Have to do with what we’ve got.”

“Understood.”

“Huang out.” Dana cut the channel and tapped a filter, dozens of ‘asteroids’ showed up in a different color, centered around Sanctorium and the Lagrange point. Her own Frigate2 and ten Corvettes colored in green.

“Ayambe, status of the ships?”

“Diego and Jung-Su are aboard their Corvettes. We have some holes in our org chart, but they’re working to filled in the gaps quickly.”

“Dana you’re going to want to see this,” Leblanc threw a message to her.

Dana opened it. It was several pictures of the warship hulls.

“Why am I seeing different guild ships?”

“This fleet is made up of at least six different guilds’ fighting forces.”

Guilds nearly never allied with one another. Only if there was a common goal. Or if the sponsored brands want it. The Star Kings and the Iron Cross alliance in Star Commander and her own betrayal had been brought about by the sponsors.

She studied the hulls again.

“Merlouc Corporation,” She clicked her tongue.

“Admiral?” Klinksy asked.

“They’re the mutual sponsor between all of these guilds.” Dana was on the news net, a quick scan revealed nothing. “Why the hell are they targeting us? Is it because of the Star Kings?”

Her eyes caught an article about Sphere World.

Fighting heats up on Sphere World!

She skipped through. “Of course. Now it is real the corporations want to get in here.” She shook her head, clearing out the terminal and returning to her map, she turned it with her hands and placed a marker.

“We should assume that the enemy know everything that is happening here at Santorium. Have all ships move out in formation to marked rally point. Ayambe pass onto the other ships.” Dana took her seat, the harness locking into her bot, and opened a channel.

“Ichika, I’m going to take the fleet out to engage the enemy fleet head on, target their warships. I’m leaving the Hellcats back at Sanctorium.”

“I’ll stay back and command them.”

“Are you sure.”

“You fight the fleets in space, I lead the hellcats and dropships.” Dana could hear the grin in her voice.

“Good hunting.”

“Make sure you leave some for us, we could use the target practice.”

Dana chuckled and closed the channel, opening another, waiting for it to be accepted.

Hoplite’s Engines fired, drawing Dana down to the deck without relying on just the harness or her mag-feet.

“All ships report ready and are moving to position.” Ayambe said.

“All weapons online, no major malfunctions.”

“Reactors are purring right along.” Klinsky said.

[Foster has joined your chat]

“Foster the corporations are making a play using the corporations, they’re either looking to clear the board or take as much of Sphere World as they can.” Dana said.

“Fuck.”

“I’m heading out with the fleet to engage them directly. Ichika is going to command the Hellcats around Sanctorium.” Dana’s eyes bounced over the map, the eleven warships under her command lit their engines moving to their rendezvous. Hellcats and dropships launched from the moon and asteroid eater, moving out onto patrol flights and to reposition through the asteroid belt.

Only Ichika knew how many hellcats they had hidden around Sanctorium already.

Shuttles weaved around the base, flitting between the shipyards, asteroid eater and moon. Others fed an asteroid into the eater, with a half dozen others slowly being hauled over.

“Foster?” She realized he’d been quiet as she’d studied maps.

“I guess we’re really doing this.” He sounded like he had aged in a matter of moments, resignation in his voice. “There is no going back after this.”

Dana took in a breath, her body relaxing, drawing back, she looked at her command team.

“This is why we joined this game. It’s never been easy for us. I guess that I’ll be getting a room at the station sooner rather than later.” She laughed, a new steel threading through her veins as she bared her teeth. Her heartbeats seemed to get deeper, her muscles clenching in anticipation.

“I’ll get Fin to do what he can to protect us. Admiral Iron, break their fleet.”

“Aye commander.”

The channel cut, leaving Dana’s heart thrumming through her chest and her blood singing in her ears.

“Time till intercept?”

“Seven minutes.” Klinsky snapped.

“Plot out second intercept, target their warships. We will give them no quarter.”

“Aye aye admiral,” All three’s voices crisp, with a bloodthirst laying just beneath the surface.

***

Luke ripped open the armory container door, grabbing a pre-made kit box.

“Make a line!”

He pushed the box out, Jynx catching it and sending it to Shiro who threw it to Moose and down to others. Shuttles dropped off more armory containers that had been locked away, Bots tore them open, passing out weapons, ammunition and gear.

Legion had reached three thousand members just a few days ago, now their numbers could be counted in the dozens.

Those at the end of Luke’s line grabbed their kit box, moving to the side they slapped their gear onto their mag-points.

Another group tore open the other side of the container, throwing out kit boxes. Engineers gathered up the empty boxes, feeding them into factories, passing out repair tools.

“That’s it! Grab your kits!” Luke yelled, he moved to the side and opened his box, loading his rifle and pistol, locking down magazines, and grenades.

“Repair tools.” Shiro called out. Luke turned, holding out his hand, Shiro pushed it over. “Thanks.” Luke grabbed it and hooked it on his leg opposite his pistol.

“Where is Fin?” Shiro asked.

“He’s working to incorporate Legion, give us some protection from the fighting.” Jynx said.

Luke slowed his movements. It didn’t feel different from any other fight they’d had in sphere World, but it was real.

Everyone slowed to a halt.

“You know everyone has been tip toeing around it, so if its real are you going to keep going on Sphere World and fighting? And you know what. Fuck it. We fought, literally to get to this point, we fought everyone else, it was all a fair damn playing field, we didn’t hurt anyone. This is real and you know what I’m going to go out there and shoot the assholes in the face that think they’re going to use this to steal what we’ve done here.” Luke shook his head. “I don’t know what it will mean in the future, but I know that I feel this is right in my damn gut and I would regret not fighting more than I would fighting.”

“At the end of your days would you rather say you wished you did something or that you regret not at least trying,” Shiro said.

Luke pulled his rifle from his back and checked it. “Alright we’re heading out to the defensive points. We’ll get these bots into position, jump back into others that are on standby and keep going.”

He put a move marker on his map and pushed off from the floor, using his jets to move for a corridor. He spared a look over his shoulder at Jynx. She looked back at him and nodded.

“Lets show these bastards that we’re not going to take this sitting down.”

[Foster requests a private chat]

“Luke here, what’s up?”

“We have guilds on Valhalla hitting free nodes. I need your assent to sell off the nodes there to Sphere World.”

“You’re selling off the other nodes?”

“We don’t have the numbers to defend them and Sanctorium. If we sell it to Sphere World we’ll get a bunch of credits to cover our shortage. It should also make the guilds think twice before they attack them. If they do then they’ll be going up against Sphere World itself.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know and I doubt that the corporations and the guilds do either.”

Luke grimaced. “Do it.”

“I have my net set up so I can take a verbal agreement, I need your permission and your full name stated to complete the verbal contract.”

“I Luke Torjak, give you my permission to sell off nodes other than Sanctorium.”

“I Paul Foster will enact the sale on your behalf and make sure to pay you out according to your shares held. Thank you Luke.”

Luke landed at a tunnel, his feet clamping to the metal flooring, his channel returning to his squad.

“The enemy dropships and some hellcats split from the enemy fleet, they’re on their deccel burn now.” Moose said.

“How long till they meet up?” Luke clomped down the hallway, studying the map of the asteroid eater.

“Three minutes. Ten minutes and the first hellcats and dropships should reach us.”

“I hate how vulnerable the shipyards are,” Jynx said.

“They might look like steel skeletons, but each of them is covered with CIWS.” Shiro said.

“It’s still a lot of ship though.” Moose said.

“Look at the squad roster,” Luke said, empty spots showed squad names as members logged in, at first a slow trickle, growing in speed and number with each passing second.

Bots that had laid dormant rose from their slumber.

They entered a hangar, hellcats powered up in twos and accelerated out into the darkness beyond. Bots armed themselves, half-squads joining one another to fill the other out.

The asteroid was coming alive around them.

“Lets stash these, then we can grab some bots without gear and jump on the turrets. That way we get blown up we don’t waste outfitted bots.” Luke picked up the pace.

“Good idea,” Jynx said, her voice firmer than a moment ago.

***