Chapter 6: Chapter Six Terror

She stared at her screens. The ancient wreck was bearing down on the fleet, and if the report was accurate she was already moving faster than the fleet. Worse, she had displayed the ability to disable them at will as well.

The young Neku captain refused to believe that a ship that could destroy two ships in a single shot each would fail to kill a battleship just because it had changed weapons. That new one was one they could identify too. Unlike the first one, they had seen it before, being used by the ancient warships that still guarded the precursor worlds they had been stationed at tens of thousands of years ago. Some of these worlds even had equally ancient defense satellites All of them were protected by powerful shields immune to even the heaviest bombardments. Precursor plasma weapons were terrifyingly powerful, able to carve even the mightiest warships in two from well outside the range of any other known weapon.

She had never seen the weapon in action herself, nor any of her crew. Few had, and those that had were lucky to have survived the encounter. They were the ones that brought back images of them in action. Recordings that scientists across the galaxy would kill to view, but had proven of limited use. The weapons were just too far beyond their understanding.

It was why she believed that strike had been meant to disable the ship. There was no way in her mind that such a terrifying weapon would fail to kill a ship in one shot. That only made it more terrifying. If only because of the implications. Implications she tried not to think about. Her mind focused on the problem at hand. Keeping her crew alive, and finding a way to get out of here.

A task that suddenly got more complicated when her science officer reported with a worried tone, “I have determined the cause of the N.I.S Eyes of Tumae’s exploding. Something is causing a massive subspace disruption in the area, and I haven’t found the edge of it. Any ship that attempts to make the jump to hyperspace will be torn apart because of it.”

That was the last thing she had wanted to hear. News whose implications meant she would never escape that thing. Whatever was causing it, she had no doubt it was the wreck, and it had demonstrated enough speed to catch the fleet on sublight. Their last avenue of escape had been cut off. She did not know what to do. The young captain did not know what course of action would keep her crew alive or allow any ship in the fleet to escape. Her mind drawing a blank on any course of action that could make a difference.

It felt like her choices were being taken away from her. The only options she could see were to either surrender or die. Neither option was particularly appealing. She wanted a third option, but none seemed to present itself.

Then she glanced at the Erali ships still using the wreck for cover, and somehow keeping up with its acceleration. The Erali had always been faster on sublight. However they were not quite fast enough to keep up with the wreck’s acceleration curve. It took her a moment to notice that they had secured themselves in position using tractor beams. Glancing at the starchart she had a guess on why. The wreck’s current course would take them close to a jump node, and the Erali commander might be planning to piggyback on the wreck and then make a run for the node. An act that brought a question to her mind.

“Would Erali jump drives be affected by the disruption?”

Her science officer blinked, and he said, “Um, no. They operate on a completely different subspace domain. One not affected by the subspace disruption, why ask?”

She smiled, knowing full well it would not be easy even as she said aloud, “I just found option three.”

Her first officer frowned, “What are you thinking?”

She glanced at the screens, and started, “As I see it all our options boil down to one of three choices. We could continue our current futile line of action, and eventually be destroyed or captured by the Erali and their wreck. We could surrender, or we can try something crazy.”

Her first officer was silent a moment, and then their eyes widened, “You aren’t thinking of going up against that wreck!?”

“Goodness no, that would be suicidal and pointless. The universe bent over backwards for us and we still don’t stand a chance against that monstrosity. No, we need an Erali ship.”

Every set of eyes on the bridge looked at her like she was crazy. “You are joking right!? Captain tell me you are joking!”

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She knew what they were thinking. Erali vessels were largely inferior. Erali weapon systems were inferior with less firepower, longer recharge cycles, and inefficient cooling systems. Erali shields were about half as strong as their Neku counterparts. However those differences meant nothing against that monstrosity of a moving wreck. Shields and armor would do them no good, and would not offer any protection that mattered. What did matter is that the Erali ships had a better sublight drive, and more importantly the ability to jump out whereas their own ships could not make an FTL jump. At least so long as the jamming field is active. 

What she didn’t want to say was that their odds of success were slim. They had to reach a ship without being fired upon, and then successfully incapacitate the crew. Hopefully without drawing too much attention, and then make for the jump point. It was a plan that counted on the Erali making a mistake. The only way to get close enough to succeed was to pretend to surrender. Then she would need to keep the Erali on the captured ship alive or the Erali on the wreck would simply shoot her captured ship out of the sky.

Little did she realize that her plan relied on incorrect assumptions. Assumptions that changed everything. An AI wasn’t going to make the mistakes an emotional Erali crew might make that would give her the slim chance she desired. Then again she had no way to know she was fighting an AI and not an Erali commander that had drawn them into a trap.

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Megumi noticed when one of the Neku cruisers dropped her shields, and disarmed her weapons. Seconds before she began broadcasting her surrender, and changed course. It was almost certainly a ruse, but she decided to play along with it, anyway. Not that she had much in the way of alternatives.

By pretending to surrender they were limiting her options. She did not want to make them terrified of surrendering. That would just not do, so this first one was not only a ruse, but a test of the waters. If she played her cards right, she would capture the vessel, and illustrate just how well she had these Neku caught.

True she didn’t need all the Neku here, but the more ships and crew she captured the more information she could gather. The ship needed a lot of information on the Neku and this war. Every single individual had intell that would be valuable to her, given how long she had been asleep. 

A part of her was wishing these Neku would give her a little more of a challenge, but they were all too predictable. They were harmless little mice caught in an elaborate cage and they didn’t even know it. Of course, they would learn soon enough, but it was already too late.

As for the ruse, well it was quite predictable what they were going to try and do. They would go after an Erali ship. The only vessels that could make a run for it. Megumi had little doubt they might try for her, if they thought they could get aboard without issue. Although they might not, considering their tools were likely useless and they knew little about her. Factors that skewed the probable actions towards trying to capture an Erali vessel. Especially if they assumed that the Constellation was under Erali control. Given they had no reason not to make the assumption, it was almost certain that they did. Megumi was going to proceed under the assumption that they had made that assumption.

Given those assumptions, and how little they knew about Solean design, they would have a better chance of taking an Erali ship. They would also avoid killing the crew, prefering to take prisoners. Bargaining chips in order to avoid being destroyed as they made a run for the jump node.

Megumi could let them do that, but she wouldn’t. It would help if her shields were back online, but the repairs to the shields were not yet completed. On the other hand, she had already restored the cloak. Damage to the cloaking generators were very minor, and easily repaired. The cloak however wasn’t going to be very useful at the moment. As such she had chosen to delay testing it.

Obviously she needed to keep them away from the Erali vessels that had tethered themselves to her hull. Easy enough to do, and if they tried to make a run for those ships, she should have her tractor beams ready, along with a number of drones for boarding purposes.

Speaking of boarding, she was almost in range of the disabled Neku Battleship. It would have been so much easier if she could have just gated her drones on to the ship in question, but the Neku did not have that technology. No gate meant they had to do it the hard way. There were other methods of instant transport, but even teleportation required a receiver of some kind. Without a transport device at both ends, it was not possible to teleport. Gates on the other hand could be projected, but they were known for being less accurate the closer you are to the target. Not to mention the other problems that occurred with close range gating attempts without a second gate. There was also a hard limit to the projection. A limit determined by available energy and often used offensively in combination with her ASC special weapons system. Honestly, it was better for a gate to be on both ends regardless of distance, as the second gate greatly reduced energy expenditure allowing for a far greater gating range. 

All of this meant that boarding had to be done the hard way. The way it had always been done. The target vessel would be secured and stabilized by a tractor beam, which would also disrupt any technology aboard. Then she would deploy drones that would cross the distance between ships, and penetrate the hull. Airlocks and existing hull breaches would be preferred, but they could make their own way in if needed. Along with the drones, a temporary gate matrix would be sent over and set up. Allowing for rapid transit between her, and the Neku Battleship. Her onboard gate was very much operational, and the matrix would compensate for the problems created by being so close.

At the same time she had started the boarding, she began sending instructions to the apparent surrendering Neku cruiser. Keeping a tight sensor lock on the vessel, and standing ready to disable the ship the moment it attempted any funny business.

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