FanFic - DP/UF - Crossroads [17]
MegaZone
"Do you know of the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a
dish that is best served cold? It is very cold in space."
--Khan Noonian Singh
Gryphon hit the bridge seconds after leaving the transporter
room; Vanguard and Kansas were powering clear of the Phoenix's blast
zone. Concordia was well clear already, and blasting away at the
Vanguard with all weapons.
"Status of enemy vessel," Gryphon asked as he took his seat
back from Saavik.
"Moderate damage, sir," Finney reported. "We've been unable
to penetrate their shields as yet."
"Lock on phase transit cannon and prepare for charging cycle."
Finney smiled grimly. She must have deduced from his reaction
to Saavik's queries that there had been deaths among the Phoenix's
crew; her lips pressed into a cruel line as she entered computations
into the firing computer, and was rewarded with a lock-on chime.
"Phase transit cannon locked," she reported. "Entering
charging cycle." Another chime. "Cannon charged and ready to fire."
"Mr. Finney, send them to hell."
Finney fired.
Vanguard disappeared.
A cheer went up from the Concordia's bridge crew. Gryphon
sighed. He had not been able to save Deedlit or Meph, but at least he
had avenged them. He wondered if that was enough, then shrugged it
off and returned to battle.
Outside, carnage was the order of the day; the arrival of
GENOM's battle planet turned the tide back the way it came. After
taking the potshot at the Dyson sphere, the war machine had set itself
to proving its worth against more worthy targets; within seconds, its
main gun had blasted the Battlestar Atlantia, reducing the mighty
vessel to slag in a millisecond.
"All vessels, this is SDF-23!" Zoner shouted, smacking the
fleet communications key on his conn arm. "Break off, scatter
formations! Don't give that monstrosity massed targets! Evasive
maneuvers--try to get behind it--"
Unconcerned, the planet pivoted slightly on its axis and fired
again, ashing the WDF Hornet, a Bengal class carrier. q immediately
set about coordinating homes for the orphaned fighters, in the middle
of all the other fleet operations he was handling. He was the first
to admit he wasn't much of a commander, but they didn't make a better
airboss.
The viewers of the WDF vessels blipped into a communications
view again, as they were hailed by the warworld.
"Greetings, Wedge Rats," Largo said formally, using the title
that very few actual WDF personnel had even heard of, let alone
remembered the origins of. "I, for those of you who do not know me,
am Largo. Allow me to present to you my greatest invention: the GENOM
Armored Tyranny and Terror. This is the prototype of the
battlestation which will someday soon hover over every inhabited world
in space, enforcing my rule. I hope you consider it a worthy foe; I'd
hate for you to think you had died an unworthy death." With a
dead-white smile, Largo cut the connection, returning everyone's
viewer to a shot of the AT&T blasting and destroying another WDF
vessel, this time the Excelsior-class WDF Sulu.
"Bastards got the Sulu--Kei!" Zoner began.
"Solution laid in," Kei cut him off, cool and professional.
"Reflex cannon powering up." She scowled at her tactical display.
"Captain, the enemy ships are blocking my solution."
"Clever bastards," Zoner muttered to himself. "Then blast
them," he replied. "Clear them out of the way, any way you have to."
"Aye, sir," Kei replied, realigning her controls.
Zoner tagged the fleetcom again, saying, "All WDF vessels,
this is MegaZone. Clear our firezone--SDF-23 is powering up main gun
to fire. Clear firezone."
"Captain, they can't mean to shoot at that thing," Hunter
declared. "All those GENOM ships are in the way."
"You've never seen the Reflex cannon in action, Mr. Hunter,"
Gryphon replied. "Get us well clear of the firezone and help out.
Jamie, target one of the bigger ships and paste it with the phase
transit cannon as soon as possible, and keep the covering fire up with
the secondary weapons."
"Aye, sir."
"All allied vessels and fightercraft are clear of the
firezone, Zoner," Kei reported. "General firepath laid in; Reflex
cannon fully charged."
"ReRob?" Zoner asked, turning to face the engineering station.
This was the first firing of an untested weapon; he wanted to be as
certain as he could it would work.
"The board is green," Rob replied. "She's as ready as she'll
ever be."
"All right. Kei: full spread, sweep firezone thirty degrees
on standard pulse duration. Fire."
"Full spread aye," Kei replied, and hit the striped key.
<<< Ministry: Psalm 69 >>>
Just as her predecessor's had so many times, the foredeck of
the SDF-23 Wandering Child cammed apart into a huge cosmic tuning
fork, between which resonated the orange lightning of a Reflex
reaction. There were a couple of differences between this weapon and
its predecessor, though.
The first was obvious; the much large size of the physical
weapon apparatus meant a much larger charging volume, and hence a much
greater discharge. The second was less apparent when the weapon was
at rest or charging; it had to do with a recent breakthrough ReRob had
made in Reflex superconductivity and subspace resonation, coupled with
a bit of Gryphon's wave-fusion theory.
The Reflex Cannon Mark II fired just as its predecessor had,
the lightning firestorm ripping from the forks in a huge whiteorange
beam that spread as it clawed forth into space, engulfing several
Ikazuchis, three star destroyers, and two basestars. All the vessels
crumbled before the blast like sand castles before a tsunami.
In the warworld's operations center, Largo sneered. They had
used up their hole card for the next five minutes, at least; the
Reflex cannon was a temperamental weapon, and needed to be charged
with care. Care took time; another reason Largo rarely exercised it
in matters of equipment. If it broke, it would be replaced.
Then it fired again, decimating two more star destroyers and
an Ikazuchi battlegroup. Largo stared, as if unable to believe what
he had seen. It proceeded to fire again, and again, and again, eight
times, sweeping across a thirty-degree angle on the plane relative to
the superdimensional fortress's pitch and roll orientation.
That, Largo knew, was categorically impossible. He was not
pleased.
"Destroy them!" he shrieked. Behind him, a Buma gunnery crew
rushed to obey.
The AT&T swung to face the oncoming Wandering Child as the WDF
vessel pitched her nose up and charged forward at flank speed,
targeting sensors probing the metallic bulk of the battlestation for a
positive targeting lock. Kei was skilled, well-trained, even
talented, but she was no Buma; Largo's crew tagged the Child first,
and fired.
The beam splintered fifty kilometers from impact, arrowing out
in a thousand directions.
"What the hell?!" Zoner cried. "Asrial! What the hell did
that?"
"Scanning," Asrial replied. "A very large energy source,
Admiral--it's...humanoid?!"
"Vaughn!" Zoner said, standing. "Get me a hailing frequency,
tight beam. Vaughn! Just in time, as usual," Zoner observed.
"Morning," Vaughn's voice replied over speakers. "Just in
time for what?"
"To save my ass, that's what," Zoner replied.
"Oh. Well, don't mention it...oh hey--I have something to
tell you. Permission to come aboard?"
"We're a bit busy right now--"
"I won't get in the way." With that, Vaughn Gross walked out
of the portside turbolift door. "Listen, there's something important
I have to tell you, and while I remember what it is--"
"Not now, Vaughn!" Zoner said, then with a bit more surprise.
"Weren't you just.... Never mind... Helm, correct course three zero
zero mark one four five. Tactical, stand by on mass drivers. Stay
away from that main gun. Pinpoint Control, this is the bridge, are
you ready?"
"Affirmative, sir," the intercom replied.
"Good. Watch those scopes. I want all six barriers blocking
that main gun if it comes in; no sense taking any chances."
"No, listen, this is really--"
"I'm really busy right now--"
"Admiral, incoming fire!"
"Pinpoint Control, where's my blocking?!"
"Zoner--"
Outside, the AT&T had unleashed its main gun; as Pinpoint
Control scrambled to intercept it, it bored in on a direct course for
the bridge.
"Will you all please stop it and listen to me for a second?!"
Vaughn screamed, finally fed up.
Outside, time stopped. Literally stopped. Vessels halted in
mid-maneuver; energy beams (like the AT&T's main gun) stopped where
they were; fighters in the middle of exploding froze, half-formed
fireballs with recognizable starfighter shapes. With a soft chime,
Gryphon appeared on the bridge of the Wandering Child, looking
confused.
"You need to hear this too, Gryphon," Vaughn said. "You all
do. I know why this universe exists--and you have to know, too.
Right now."