C73 A Beast born for Murder.
( A.N. Been struggling with this one. I admit, I have a vision were to go with this, but to fit it into the right words and staying within the right set character has proven a bit challenging for me here. Please do let me know what you think. ^^)
A Beast born for Murder.
Allistor System, aboard the TMS Silencer.
“ Group 4, send Strikers for rearmament. “ Alber called out, trying to get something of a supply chain going, using the planet-based military base to have the frigates use their ammunition quite freely. It was a tactic that, for now, was causing massive damage to the Xa’Leen, but they would be using their ammunition up quickly.
He was hoping to manage somewhat of a window however, to get breathing room, already to have send out another request for reinforcements as the only other option was to try and evacuate Allistor 5, and that was outright impossible.
Even if he had the ships to dare an attempt, the Xa’Leen were actively blocking the two only valid phase lane’s that would offer a escape route for them. Which also meant, any reinforcements heading into system, had to be numerous enough to break through their blockade as well.
It seemed indeed a hopeless situation, but he was prepared for that. Risking his life was part of his duty, and if this would be the final battle, then he was glad it would be aboard the Silencer. He would rather go down fighting, then rot on some remote world due to old age.
“ Have your ships cover group 4. “ He directed towards Nana who still sat besides him, something he had lightly wondered about, as it should be clear to her as well that this was a battle that could not be won. But unaware of her true nature, he simply felt a degree of respect and gratitude towards her right now, and to whoever was piloting and crewing their ships.
And as usual, she would just nod, but he was getting used to it quickly, she was not part of the Military chain, and all that mattered was the prompt reaction shown in their ships, as they followed his orders without question.
[ “ We may have a problem. ” ] Nana could meanwhile hear Hope speak in their private conversation.
[ “ Whats going on ? “ ] Kira asked, followed by a brief curse as her ship had received a glancing blow from one of those spike spitting Xa’Leen.
[ “ Anthony is getting the Wrath ready to join. And I don’t think he is in the right state of mind right now. It may be a repeat of what happened on the Pride’s Fall. “ ] Hope elaborated.
[ “ That would be revealing that we have access to Logan, and keep plundering the wrecks there. “ ] Alianna claimed.
[ “ How bad is it ? “ ] Kira asked, being the one that herself had witnessed part of the carnage that Anthony had caused then, if somewhat indirectly.
[ “ I am not sure. He is being impulsive right now.
What worries me is the reason for his reaction. Bospherous was wiped out, and he found a recorded message from the colony. Not very pretty, but he is seriously upset, so I don’t think he is going to be very cooperative.
And he is doing, something. I am detecting a massive material drain from the stockpile, but I can’t detect were it’s being funneled to. “ ] Hope explained.
[ “ Think he might have figured out something new about his ability then ? “ ] Nana wondered.
[ “ Usually I would be aware of that, but he’s locking me out from himself and the Wrath at the moment. “ ] Hope responded.
[ “ If he really get’s out of control, sick Ina on him, she got him wrapped around her finger pretty good. “ ] Kira noted with a giggle.
[ “ Uhu, she calls him Master too, but I think she’s the one holding his leash pretty tight. “ ] Miriam added audibly amused.
[ “ Girls, this is not the time. Please focus on the situation. ] Hope warned.
[ “ Sorry. “ ] Miriam uttered.
“ New contact’s. It’s Sovereign’s jump-ship, and another Friendly IFF. “ The tactical officer on the Silencer then suddenly announced, loud enough to sound over the noise the charging main cannon made as it was spooling up to fire at one of the carrier bugs.
[ “ It’s the Wrath. Nana, please take care of it if Alber has questions. “ ] Hope spoke.
[ “ Ok. “ ] Nana responded, just as the Silencers Tactical officer finished the identification check on the Wrath.
“ It’s the TMS Wrath. “ The officer announced, much to the confusion of some, as the only ship with that name within the Commonwealth was lost in Vigal.
“ Ship Classification, Drone carrier. “ He then added, double-checking it’s IFF code to make sure it was correct.
“ The Wrath ? “ Alber uttered, and then looked over to Nana as the Wrath should have been a wreck in Logan.
“ Modified Salvage. “ Nana simply responded, which caused Alber to look at her with a hint of suspicion. But then the Silencer received a hit, so that Alber turned his attention back to his bridge crew.
“ Damage report, and put the Wrath on screen. “ He commanded.
“ The right wing structure was-, “ Engineering called out, but then paused.
“ There, is, no damage. It may have been a glancing blow. But I have a report of injured crew in that section. “ The officer corrected then slightly confused.
“ Get medical on it. “ Alber ordered, selecting a few more priority targets to forward to tactical before watching the Wrath on the main view-screen.
The Seltran ship had already jumped back out of system, and the Wrath had ignited her engines to accelerate, and simultaneously started launching a group of drones that outwardly seemed different then the Killer Bee, that should have been on it.
“ It does not look like the Wrath is going to join formation, is she ? “ He then asked Nana, as the Wrath’s predicted path was showing it to head towards the front-line, where the Tank type destroyers currently acted as distraction and shield for the striker vessels.
“ No. Sovereign is personally commanding her. “ Nana answered, managing to stay in character.
“ Why is he taking her to the front ? “ Alber inquired, given that the Drone Carriers were more in line with a weakly defended striker vessel. Standard procedure was to hold such a ship in the back so it could send out drone swarms from there.
“ He has not shared his intent. But the Xa’Leen seem to have angered him, there is no telling what he is going to do. “ Nana responded.
She was a bit nervous again, that impact earlier, the whole ship was shook by it. It suggested to her that Anthony had intervened. Whatever he was planning, he seemed not to care at the moment if his ability was revealed, and she would likely have to come up with something when the Terran’s realized what he was capable of.
Right now, that may even become a detriment for them, as the Terran ships were reduced down to 402 ships. They were holding up well, but she could notice that moral was slowly being strained.
None amongst them seemed to have the delusion to make it out of here alive. But if they were to grow aware that Anthony had the ability to prolong the life and combat capacity of their ships, well, it might turn into somewhat of a mess.
TMS Wrath, a few moments ago.
Hope wasn’t wrong, it was pointless what he was attempting here. The Wrath was a decent ship, but by itself, barely even able to defend itself. She needed the drones to pose any significant threat, though she could easily punch above her weight then.
The drones were gone though, not completely stocked when he picked her up, and with what had remained being taken apart for resources and blueprint research.
All he had was the result of that research, 40 heavy combat drones with two heavy Gatling guns each, alongside a selection of missiles. Their armament was so over-engineered that the drive system on the drones would be hard pressed to keep the drone stable, due to how much force continuous fire produced.
They were a test article, and were the Wrath could easily fit up to 800 of her smaller attack drones, the version Hope created, would surmount at most to 370. Perhaps up to 450 if the internal hangar structure was adapted to suit them, but he did not even have enough to be an inconvenience to the Xa’Leen right now.
Logic, it would dictate that what he was attempting here was not just pointless, but a wasteful use of resources with nothing to gain. But logic no longer seemed to click for Anthony the way it used to, not since he decided to just give in to that notion, that desire.
That same feeling he held back on the Pride’s fall, that anger, that lust to hunt that took hold of him. Wrong as it had felt then, wrong as it felt now, even after his chat with Hope about the subject, there was a sudden clarity within that idea now.
It was as though someone had flipped a switch, and with it something of an emotional indifference for anything but that drive to kill. There was no question about the reason, because after internally seeing Ina in place of that woman, over and over again, there was just one reasonable thing to be done.
Newtons third law described it best, for every action…
It should have made no sense, there was nothing he could truly do. Or so he would have thought before that switch was flipped. But now there was only certainty, he was going to be the reaction, and he had no intention to be equal.
But how to do it ? There was no plan, just a feeling, and as unreasonable as it should have been, Anthony gave into that feeling with a certainty that should have felt unnatural.
It moved him to open multiple psykic screens, one where he plotted a course for the Wrath, so that she ignited her engines to follow as commanded. Repairing the Silencer on another, out of pure reflex as her side was struck. While on a third, he removed every room, every installation on the Wrath that held no value to him.
Living quarters, cafeteria, oxygen and water recycling, everything that would have been needed for a human crew, it all was deleted, and the freed up space was re-purposed to place more hangar space within the Wrath’s shell. And by the time he reached the ships bridge, he had space for around 900 of the current drones, yet only 40 that had already launched, escorting the Wrath.
But he held no concern about that low number of drone’s, there was still that certainty, and the feeling of material that was coalescing in his grasp. Drawn from every warehouse across the systems Hope had expanded into, and stored within his Psyckic plane, with neither rime or reason why that even worked.
Nor did it matter to him, when he demanded that formless blob of liquefied material to flow from his plane into the Wrath, to split into a multitude of tendrils until hundreds of blobs begun to flow into a new form. Armor, weapons, engines, thrusters, everything that was needed to become a new drone, an exact copy of the once that already escorted the Wrath.
And why should it matter ? It worked, it was by his will, given form because that was it’s purpose. It was far more interesting to look at the main view-screen, watching as the Wrath passed the Terran’s front defenders, and at what should be his enemy, his prey.
A berserk species, playing at war, throwing thousands of themselves into a pointless death, just for what may seem like another meal. No value even in their own life, as if driven by utter desperation, perhaps ?
That was not relevant though, because he remembered once more, that sound, that last gurgling of the woman, and Ina. These beasts were themselves predators. They would try to come for him too, for that which was his, for Ina, for the Siren’s, for his children.
It darkened his mood, and if anyone could see him right now, they would see the grimace of a man that had whipped himself into a frenzy of rage and hatred for these beings, enraged at the very notion that they thought they could lay hands on what was his.
“ Engage them. “ He uttered under his breath, which prompted the initial 40 drones to dart ahead, releasing a swarm of missile towards the Xa’Leen with randomly selected targets, a form of initial greeting as Anthony thought.
Then the newly created 900 drones launched from the Wrath, forming up into groups of three as they spread out wide to assault various positions within the Xa’Leen formation, based on Anthony’s assumption that they had no real means to counter smaller craft.
And he wasn’t that far off as it would soon turn out, as the Xa’Leen indeed lacked a counter for small and nimble craft. They did manage to use those small bug creatures, those acid spitters, to form a counter force, but the primary success rate stemmed from the fact that there were more spitter bugs, then he had drones for now.
But that made Anthony smile cruelly, forming more drones that would be launched only a moment later, them more, and still more, over and over again, until the count of drones had reached over five thousand.
At that point, a sort of, equilibrium was reached, as the Xa’Leen acid spitters were not able to keep up, with some of the drone groups switching targets to act as a, hunter-killer force, tracking down those smaller creatures to eradicate their anti drone armament.
While most of the drones swarmed out to unload every last missile they had on large spike spitters, before then switching targets to those orb worms, riddling them with holes as their Gatling guns begun to weave their serenade of death.
And while the Xa’Leen were occupied hunting drones, and trying in vain to evade them, Anthony took the time to simply repair those drones that had been destroyed, those left with enough useful matter to fix them. This added a lot of confusion for those beasts, seeding just a hint of chaos within their ranks.
But the Xa’Leen were not simply taking the beating from him. Anthony, with his small force, was causing quite a bit of damage to them as is, but the Wrath itself approaching that swarm all alone seemed to arouse enough suspicion for these creatures to finally open fire on him.
The first few of the large spike’s were already slung towards him, with quite a few impacting into the Wrath, managing to tear into the heavy armor on the ships top with surprising ease. But just as he did the drones, he repaired the damage caused to the ship, causing the Xa’Leen to gradually consider him more of a threat.
The green orbs were the least of his worries for now, as they were ineffective as long as he kept the fusion reactor offline. The Wrath still could use the energy conversion from it’s chemical thrusters, which was enough to keep the remaining systems online. While the acid spitters were just to preoccupied with his drones to pose any danger to him just yet.
There were two things he could glean during all this.
First, the spikes were obviously made of hardened bio-metal, the material the Xa’Leen’s shells were made of. And once they came in contact with the Wrath, he could absorb the metallic content to use in repairs, or to add for further drone production.
Under normal circumstances, he might even have found the composition of this material quite fascinating, given that it was an organic variation of the nanobot idea humanity had chased for so long, and then promptly discarded upon discovery for fear of it’s AI components.
And second, he could neither see that large creature that had tried to swallow the jump-ship, nor that badly misshapen mantis like creature here. Which left him to wonder about the Xa’Leen’s lack of any intelligent tactical engagement. All they had were numbers, mindlessly shooting at moving targets without any proper predictive targeting.
It was all just, point and shoot, with more lucky hits due to scattered shooting solutions then anything else. It was near inconceivable how they failed to steamroll the Terran fleet, when they made such short work in Bospherous of the smaller defender fleet and the colony there.
No, there was something missing here. He seen it in Bospherous, brief as his stay there was. They moved faster, more aggressive even. And there were at least those two other unit types, prospectively more.
“ Fine. “ Anthony grunted to himself.
Then his mind went into deploying whatever resources were available to him, creating drone group after group, all launching with the simple goal of eradicating the Xa’Leen. A black cloud of tightly packed drone fighters swarming out from the Wrath’s launching bays, to start outright massacring the Xa’Leen.
And purely on instinct, he begun to reset the drones. Every drone without missile ammunition was suddenly being restocked, only to launch missiles at more distant targets while their Gatling's saturated targets in their close vicinity, so that the current assault fleet of the Xa’Leen experienced a rapid and ever increasing decline in numbers.
And he did so, simply because he was annoyed now. If someone was playing at a grander game here, then he simply had to eradicate all their tools, and perhaps in the process force out whatever may be pulling the strings from behind.
Yet, there was something he felt was still lacking in his approach of this. Something that signified that it was he who eradicated them.
A messenger, an icon of his presence, something that distinguished him from the Terran’s to the point that it would become unmistakable. A Weapon, like a sword, that should be looked upon with utter terror.
“ Yes, a sword. “ He uttered with an eerie grin that surely would have unsettled anyone who might witness it. And then he just imagined it, a sword, manifesting it as a silvery liquid before himself, given the shape of a bee waisted Gladius.
“ No Mercy. “ He near whispered with that horrific grin on Sovereigns face, appreciating the design with a murderous fascination.
Using his right hand, he would then cut this blade’s liquid form, removing handle and guard. And where the blade had been severed, he’d grab the edge of the blade with two fingers on each side, and pull the liquid out in a curve, until he had two narrow tips pointing forward. A process he then repeated one more time, to add a second set of these, wings, diagonally below the first set.
At that moment the Wrath was shook once again, but it was a lot more violent then the previous hits she received. Anthony could actually hear the entire ship groan and creak, only to be thrown about within the bridge as something was yanking the ship about like a toy.
Until a loud cracking sound signified the ship being torn apart. It had thrown him off balance so badly, he had to get back onto his feet, while at the same time, accessing one of the drones to have a good look at what just conspired.
But what he saw made his smile grow unnaturally wide, even for him to fall into somewhat of a soft laughter, a laughter that seemed so devoid of sanity. And it was caused by the appearance of a massive worm-like creature that currently flew off with a large part of the Wrath being chewed down on.
It appeared to be the same type that had tried to swallow the jump ship, and with it’s appearance, the Xa’Leen suddenly started to become more active as well. Growing much more aggressive as they begun to try and outright gobble up the swarms of drones, instead of just enduring, or pointlessly aiming at them with weapons unfit to hit them.
And more interestingly, they started to charge for the Terran ships, abandoning their pretense of civil warfare, and just acting like the beast they were, or least, that Anthony perceived them to be.
Strangely, that filled him with a sense of joy, and a lust to hunt. It was no longer just a simple slaughter, there was finally something intelligent, something that could perhaps offer more of a fight, and experience proper fear.
Oh, how he wanted it to struggle in despair, to shake in terror. To near die of fright just thinking of the one that could slaughter it with ease, a thought so unlike Anthony, so devoid of his usual logic.
But even as the beast approached for a second pass, to destroy the Wrath for good, he could only fall for that euphoric feeling within. That hunger for what should have been an unrealistic, even insane notion that he could stand against such an overwhelming number of foe’s, let alone that giant being headed for him right now.
“ Noc ! “ He spoke, near shouted with utter delight, slashing letters from the words, No Mercy, to create a title, the name of what was to be his Avatar. And it responded, with childlike laughter as it was released to play.