[CYA] Chapter 193: Arrival (Patreon)

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_5GUmYBiiy97yw1HiMJtXSVqz3h_lgD7KwtfD7SoaMU/edit?usp=sharing

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<Alex, Real - Dorgon Calls for Aid, Innominate Duty Station>

Alex’s quick maneuver had prevented the spear-like void of non-detection from slamming into the Innominate’s shields, and Pilar was already tracing the absence, aspect beams sweeping after it.

Still, Alex had come a long way, and his voice was calm despite the situation. “We didn’t arrive at the standard jump-point, apologies for that.”

Natasha pointed all of their attention toward the designated point of arrival in the Dorgon system, and they could easily see an ongoing, rolling fight as many Imperium ships with more experienced or specialized navigators arrived at a regular cadence only to be caught up in the ongoing clash.

Four Imperium warships—each three or four times the size of the Innominate—were stationed around the large arrival zone—spaced evenly in three-dimensions, forming the points of a triangular pyramid—their guns and shields working to protect each new arrival.

Around them, chitinous masses of spikes were scraping and causing the shields to flare, even as defenses that seemed as much biological as magical bore up under the constant barrages of return fire.

Fighters of many different stripes danced and whirled in the void, seeking advantage.

A hail came in from the largest of the Imperium ships. “Imperium vessel, this is Hal, command officer of the Imperium Warship, Discovery Alpha. Clearance code, XD-1. Acknowledge.”

John responded for them, even as Alex continued to maneuver around the unseen dangers trying to clash with those he could effectively zero in on.

Pilar’s efforts yielded fruit as she clipped one of the oddly dark, needle-like ships with their main guns, sending rippling fire across its surface before it detonated.

John signed off. “Alex. We’re commanded to head for the planet itself. We are not to engage in this fight if we can avoid it. Our cargo is too valuable. We are invited to join after dropping that off, however.”

Alex gave a mirthless laugh. “Noted.”

He juked the ship to the right, then flickered a warp-bubble around them just long enough to throw the vessel a thousand miles in the correct direction.

The bubble disengaged just in time for their shields to catch the incoming gravity aspected beams, hostile attempts to pop their warp field.

Alex’s smile grew. He knew that he wasn’t the best pilot, but he’d learned a lot of tricks over this last month or so, and he was putting them all to use.

Dorgon itself was the third planet from this relatively normal star, and he aimed for it even as the rest of the crew worked to keep the ship in tip top state.

It was clear that those pursuing them were used to the standard specs of the Innominate’s class of vessel, and the improved Innominate was outperforming them at every turn.

Still, the realization caused Alex to pale. “Guys, this is a final point for weeding out Initiates before Dorgon even begins. If they didn’t bother to improve their vessel…”

Natasha growled. “Badgers’ breakfast. They’d be slaughtered.”

“Exactly.” Alex followed the instructions to vacate the battle, aiming for the planet and the platforms that would be surrounding it, offering safety. Still, he itched to flip around and take the fight to the insectile spaceships that seemed dead set on winnowing his fellow Initiates.

Another vessel appeared from a jump, arriving closer in toward the planet of Dorgon.

Their shields weren’t up.

“Pop-gun in a war-zone!” Alex yelled, throwing the warp field up to rip across three thousand miles, arriving right on top of the other ship.

The other vessel jerked, the helmsmen clearly panicking at the Innominate’s sudden arrival.

It didn’t matter. Alex had gotten there just in time for one of the dark lances to shatter across the Innominate’s upper shields, stripping away a full thirty percent of their power and integrity.

John began yelling into a communication. “Imperium vessel. Get your raisin-cookie-loving shields primed and up, NOW! This is an active combat zone. Right now, you’re sizzling ribs at a barbeque, and Uncle Geoffry is circling.”

Alex patched through, directly reaching out to the other ship’s helmsman. “This is Alex Johnson of the Innominate. Tie into our systems, and I’ll guide you until your defenses are prepped and fully operational.”

“Thank you!” The voice was almost a squeak, but it still sounded male to Alex, not that it really mattered.

Lenka’s point defense batteries were sending out a rhythmic chatter that wouldn’t be out of place coming from the sewing machines in a sweatshop.

Insectile ships were coming from everywhere, the vessels quite literally swarming as the islands of Imperium warships were like bug-zappers in the dark.

Even so, some were being overwhelmed.

The Innominate—closely hugged by their temporary hanger-on—interfered where they could.

Devouring flame burned through ship after ship as Pilar flicked that aspect beam through its arc.

The enemy didn’t seem to use shields, at least the smallest vessels didn’t, and as such, a bare fraction of a second was all it took for the devouring flame to gain a foothold and the fate of that particular gnat be all but sealed.

There were billions of gnats in the Dorgon system.

There weren’t any defensive buoys left, as those had likely been taken out days earlier by the never-ending swarm.

Occasional pulses of light would tear through the area, wiping out everything in a column leading back to the Dorgon itself, where the defensive platforms were sending out a constant barrage.

Natasha was tied in, and she provided the needed data for Alex to avoid the lines of defensive fire as they devastated swaths of the enemy.

“Where are all these enemy ships coming from?” Alex growled, rolling himself and the unknown vessel into the space cleared by the relatively close path of a defensive shot.

Natasha highlighted more than a hundred moving and flickering portals throughout the star system. “Each leads to a queen-held world or system, and they’re pouring in, trying to pressure the defense to keep aid from Dorgon. This is an all out assault on the Imperium.” She frowned. “Even if it seems to be contained to a single world for the Tutorial.”

Alex swallowed water reflexively. And this is the reality out in the wider universe? Conflicts like this?

He suddenly felt very small, even as he purposely flipped and slammed through an insect fighter that was trying to gain a bead on the ship he was sheltering.

It splattered on his shields like the bug it was.

Lenka growled. “Alex! This is difficult enough. Try to minimize strikes, alright?”

“I’m trying. That one was avoiding your defensive fire. Had to make the call.”

She grunted in grudging acceptance. “Fine, but minimize, yes?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

A voice came to him from the other ship. “I think I’ve got a handle on things. Shields coming online. Taking command back.”

Their shields blazed to life, and the ship surged sideways with a flare of power, gaining distance from the Innominate to begin their own defense and engagement, moving in the same direction.

Alex fell into sync with Pilar and Lenka as the three of them strove to keep their ship safe and assist those they could. At the same time, he continued their progress toward Dorgon.

They occasionally came across larger insect ships, but those were almost always as busy dodging the defensive platform fire as taking potshots at the Imperium vessels within range, so the swarms remained the core issue and impediment.

It took three hours of constant maneuvering, constant fighting, constant peril before they reached the saturation point, where the firing arcs from the defensive platforms were so thick and overlapping that no insect ship survived for long enough to pose a real threat.

Ten minutes of tense but relatively level flying after that brought the Innominate into visual range of the planet.

Grant’s voice came to Alex in his flight mode. He sounded vaguely disappointed to Alex’s ear. “So… that’s it? It just looks like a rockier Earth…”

Alex grunted. He had to agree, but he noticed something else as well, his magical senses practically screaming at him given his direct connection to the ship and the amplification that entailed.

Natasha outright laughed, tied in as she was as well. “Look closer.”

And they did.

The planet of Dorgon was surrounded by Imperium forces.

Twenty-six siege platforms were equally spaced around the planet, magical tethers locking them in place even as ships that dwarfed the Innominate patrolled the spaces between.

That in and of itself would have been impressive from a sci-fi perspective, but it was the magical aspects that were utterly awe-inspiring.

Gravity itself had been molded, shaped, and worked to the advantage of the encirclement.

One of the greatest issues in defending a planet—or the orbit of a planet—came from the fact that the planet was always down, giving any attacker an advantage of energy and ‘high ground’ superiority.

After all, it is hard to fend off attackers—let alone drive them away—when standing at the bottom of a well.

But that was not an issue here.

Instead, the platforms were the source of a truly astronomical working of power.

The fabric of reality had been reshaped and the totality of the platforms were now at a gravitational high-point, well above anything else in the star system.

It was a three-dimensional, holistic effect which also isolated the planet like a particularly difficult hole at the local mini-golf course.

To reach Dorgon, anyone would have to come ‘up’ to the platforms before falling down once again to reach the planet.

It was somehow in balance, so the gravitational and orbital mechanics of Dorgon System weren’t disrupted, and that just made the feat all the more impressive.

Natasha spoke into the silence once again. “Still a bit disappointed?”

Alex shifted into bridge mode just in time to see the younger man’s response.

Grant could only shake his head even as they all goggled.

Alex shook his own in silent mirth before moving back into flight mode.

It was time to dock, and it seemed that these last hundred thousand miles or so would be a steep climb.

Their levi-core churned as Alex continued to pour in power, accelerating them toward the gravitational slope, up that slope as it tried to bleed off their velocity and toss them back like a toy rocket seeking escape velocity.

To Alex’s surprise, that was an all too apt description, and he was realizing that he actually wouldn’t be able to reach the heights of the platforms at all, despite all the Innominate’s capabilities.

Then, a voice reached out to him. “Imperium vessel, this is the Imperium platform number 543-987. Please provide credentials.”

Alex blinked a few times, then flexed his magic and control to send over their identification and information on their mission and orders.

“Received and verified. Welcome to Dorgon, Innominate. Please follow the indicated route.”

Natasha forwarded him the data, and he shifted to the side, seeming to fall into a slot in the gravity mountain that hadn’t been there before.

Oh… That was like trying to climb the walls, and they just opened a gate for me. He almost palmed his own face but decided that it wasn’t worth the distraction.

Eddies and currents of power, gravity, and so much else were swirling and buffeting the Innominate, but not to a harmful degree. Still, the energies were there, parading before his eyes.

The instructions were rather simple, but the power and cost involved beggared his imagination.

This was equivalent to watching some billionaire wave at a patch of dirt and say, ‘Yes, I’d like a skyscraper there.’

Simple instructions, and with the man pouring money in? It got done.

That was what Alex was witnessing.

The inefficiency was staggering but even if it had been perfected, the expenditure would be hard for him to fathom.

Regardless, he followed the guide-points sent his way, feeling the magic involved in lowering this bridge for them, opening this gate, this path.

He followed the route alongside many other, similar vessels on their own paths, seeing other ships coming in from every direction.

Thousands of Innominate-sized spaceships had to be closing in on the planet each hour… and that seemed slow given what he knew of Apology Tutorial numbers. “Shouldn’t there be more incoming?”

John grunted. “Well, some started on the planet, and they should be there now. Some were on the platforms, or at least were involved with them, and they should be in place already. Then, there’s the fact that there are still two days left, so we’ll likely see a spike over the coming hours.”

Lenka’s voice came in quietly after John’s. “And, I’m sure a lot died in their first scenario. Eight hundred million to begin with is a big number, but who knows how many will make it here? And of those, how many will make it home?”

That put a damper on their wonder, and it was with a subdued spirit that Alex guided the Innominate toward a prepared dock in the mile-high side of the platform, which seemed the size of a small continent or at least a very large island.

Depressing thoughts aside, they had a mission to complete.

Everything else could come after.

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