Never Surrender Read online

  Bethany Anne’s eyes flashed red, “That. Won’t. Happen.”

  “Be merciful from a position of strength, allow those who would yield, to yield. Those who wish to hold on to their false beliefs?” This time, Bethany Anne paused a moment before finishing. “Then they have chosen the way of the Kurtherian. Send them to hell where King Yoll writhes in pain, so he has someone to talk to.” She smiled, deviltry in her eyes, “And make sure you tell all of them, to tell King Yoll the Queen Bitch says, ‘Hi, pencil prick.'”

  The ship’s people, once again, cheered as they prepared for the battle to come.

  Everyone had watched the video of Bethany Anne killing the Yollin King, and her complete lack of respect, and multiple times she called him names still elicited a chuckle from most.

  Annex Gate - Straiphus

  The Yollins manning Annex Gate Straiphus had been calmly pulled together and then changed out with those Kael-ven figured were as supportive of the new regime as possible.

  Further, they had Kiel’s mercenaries walking around inside the massive complex, working to make sure that the massive Gate wouldn’t be sabotaged while the Human fleet was in the other system.

  Having that happen could be a problem.

  Bethany Anne had made sure the calculations were completed for all of the ships to transfer through the gate, without exploding it. All of the engineers agreed, so long as they didn’t try to shove ‘that big asteroid bastard’ through the gate, it would be just fine.

  John had called the space station the QBBS TBAB a couple of times before Gabrielle punched his arm “For Meredith’s sake. No lady wants to be called ‘big.'”

  Meredith replied that she assumed they meant Reynolds. Reynolds replied he considered it a compliment.

  Bethany Anne wanted to know who was feeding the EIs gutter humor? Everyone in the room with Bethany Anne turned as one and looked at her.

  Straiphus System

  Admiral Thlock-nel glanced up at the clock above the door in his office.

  The display let him know that they had officially passed the maximum amount of time it should have taken the Empires Broken to make it to the Yoll System and be safely lying in wait for the aliens to attack him.

  It was a shame he was going to lose three destroyers, but all of their moves so far hadn’t brought about the expected results.

  “Sir?” The intercom called out.

  “Yes?”

  “We have passed the maximum amount of time where we expect to see the next transfer into the system.”

  “Ok, it seems we have their attention,” Admiral Thlock-nel commented, “Tell all ships to prepare, we are expecting unhappy visitors soon. Make sure the Deep Space Ship G’laxix Gunt’eh is ready.”

  QBS Minnesota - Human G’laxix Sphaea Class Ship

  Admiral Thomas nodded to the Captain of the Minnesota. He was a visitor on the ship, and as such he didn’t want to get in the way of the ship’s Captain.

  While using Kurtherian tech could get him the battle information back in the Yollin system, he didn’t trust that Murphy wasn’t an alien, capable of messing up the communications across the distance. He wanted to be in the system with his people for this battle.

  Fingers crossed nothing happened that the Empress and the others couldn’t handle.

  However, she had Lance so, he decided he needed to be here. Unfortunately, for the same reasons Bethany Anne couldn’t come, he couldn’t be on the ArchAngel as his flagship.

  Right now, the Minnesota was in the back of the queue, waiting for their time to transit.

  He looked at the 3D holograph of the Straiphus system, and the Yollin system.

  “Go,” he commanded.

  The human ships started transferring out through the Annex Gate.

  Twenty-two Hours Later, QBS Carrier Pilot’s Dawn

  “Get your ass prepped!” Pilot Julianna Fregin yelled at a nearby pilot, a smile on her face as she walked across the hangar bay of the Pilot’s Dawn. Her ship was on the floor, her EI controlled wingman was racked upside down right above her own ship, allowing both pilot and wing to leave at the same time.

  Julianna sidled up next to her Eagle and slid a hand down the beautiful black side. She stopped a moment and placed her finger on each of seven and a half Yollin flags. She had thought back to the fear, the drama and then finally the bolt that her EI wingman had taken, allowing her ship to only take a partial hit, where she lost a good portion of her leg.

  Only to have the Empress’ own blood help rejuvenate her. Now, she was not only whole after a lot of time of consuming food and energy in a Pod-doc, but her reactions were faster, as well.

  All of the guys who flew on her team refused to play slaps with her, anymore. She didn’t blame them, none of the women would play with her, either.

  She palmed the side of the ship, next to the canopy, and it opened smoothly. Tossing her helmet onto the seat, she spoke into her empty cockpit, “Hey Bootlegger, you active?”

  “Yes Pilot Fregin, I’m online and listening.”

  “You ready to dance the dance of the wicked, again?”

  “You realize that for me this is my first time, correct?”

  “Yes,” Julianna agreed as she grabbed her helmet and pulled out the straps to lock it on her body suit. “Sorry, you lost any chance of retrieving the recordings from our last fight. Let’s hope this time you don’t have to dive in front of a laser bolt to save my human ass.”

  “Yes, let’s hope.” Bootlegger agreed, “Remember your promise, if we both come back from these fights intact, I get to change my call sign.”

  Julianna smiled, locked down her helmet and slid into her cockpit. Hitting the button to close the canopy, it dropped in two seconds, sealing her in. “It can’t be too damned embarrassing, Bootlegger.”

  “What could possibly be more embarrassing than a name having to do with running alcohol away from law enforcement?”

  “Plenty,” she replied, checking out the ship just for her own sanity. The chance of anything being amiss was infinitesimally small. “Try Dipshit for one, maybe Bootlicker for another, and I haven’t started with anything that starts with twit, twat, or cock.”

  “Have I mentioned that your concept of call signs has a bell-curve breaking amount of gutter words?”

  “I know, do you like them?” she chuckled.

  “Why would I like them? I have researched plenty of proper names for a call-sign, and I haven’t found many starting with the words you mentioned.”

  “That’s because there weren’t any pilots with the balls to own them,” she retorted.

  She would swear the EI was sounding confused with her language. “But, you have ovaries.”

  “Semantics,” she told him as she gave a thumbs-up to the crew walking around, making sure everyone was locked and loaded.

  Julianna spent the next few moments confirming that communications with her flight squadron and Pilot’s Dawn were solid.

  It was t-minus some number of minutes before they took off. Time to get into the zone.

  Deep Space Ship G’laxix Gunt’eh

  “We got this,” Captain Trell called out, “Let us not fail our people back on Yoll!”

  The last alien ship had slipped by some hours previous, and it was time for their ship to close the trap.

  As the ship which opened the Annex Gate, and had never returned, the G’laxix Gunt’eh had the ability to shut down the gate as part of their protocols. All they needed to do was make it through the gate, and it would shut down forcing the aliens to lose valuable days to unlock it.

  It was a precautionary override in case an overwhelming alien force was following a Deep Space vessel through an Annex Gate.

  Now, it was going to be used against these aliens.

  “GO!” He commanded and the fully cloaked G’laxix Gunt’eh lifted from the large asteroid they had been using to hide, keeping the chances of discovery down.

  “Sir,” Signals called out. “We have a ship lying off to the
side of the Annex Gate, hard to see. It is … rectangular in shape. It doesn’t seem to have external weaponry.”

  “External or not,” the Captain spoke in a firm voice, “Do not assume anything with these aliens. We have all seen the video from the fight for Yoll.”

  Puck Defense Destroyer Abraham

  Captain Adam Goldman watched as the information from the recently deployed sensor net became active. He glanced up at the clock at the top of his screen to see there were three more hours to go before it was fully operational. He was going to be anxious until then.

  A flare occurred on the screen in quadrant two one two, “Abraham…”

  “Seeking, Captain,” the EI replied. “Moving sensor assets towards the area.”

  Captain Goldman pressed his lips together. “Damn,” he whispered.

  Another flare up, this time closer. He stabbed the all call button, “People, we have a possible attack run, cloaked. I want all Pucks Deployed, repeat, All Pucks Deployed right now! Assume a run on the gate. Defensive positions now!”

  All along the ship, enormous numbers of Pucks started streaming off of the sides, accelerating out to protect the gate.

  Protect it from what, they weren’t certain.

  QBS ArchAngel

  “Now those, are some large motherfuckers,” Chief Engineer John E. Rodriquez commented into the quiet as the two Yollin Super-Dreadnoughts were displayed on their screen.

  Those in the Engineering group nodded their agreement, “Bigger they are…” Sammy Pendleton started.

  Len Zoic finished to the chuckles of those watching, “The bigger the fireworks when they e x p l o d e.”

  John looked around. He, like every person in this group, knew that ArchAngel had not wanted her human crew on this mission. The problem with EIs, in John’s opinion, was that they always seemed to overestimate their abilities and underestimate a human’s ability to create success out of the shit the universe dealt them.

  No way was this lady going into battle without the best chance possible to survive. Having her human crew was the best chance.

  His team drifted off to their stations, and John took a deep breath and slowly let it out. He was a damned long way and time from that fateful airplane trip down with Dan Bosse and the others, including Jean Dukes.

  The woman that got away. Hell, he snorted, she didn’t get away, he just went to go play with the cool new toys, and he never came back. Now, he knew that she was in a relationship with John Grimes and he told a few close friends it took a real Bitch to replace him.

  Four drinks later, his friends as plastered as he was, he admitted he had been the stupid fucker that had let her go. Neither he nor his friends ever remembered him admitting that part.

  He briefly considered recording a ‘see ya later’ video for Jean, but stopped. Why now? If he had wanted to see her, it wasn’t like she wasn’t available for a video call anytime. John Grimes wouldn’t have cared, he wasn’t the jealous type.

  Hell, when you can break most people with your pinky, why be jealous?

  He thought back to the old submarines, the diesel ones and considered what he would try to pull out of his hat, to get just a few more bars of power if this lady wanted them. He turned and started yelling to his people, “Hey! Listen Up!” The heads turned around to see their Chief looking like he had just had an epiphany.

  “I need overrides on Power Lines 12,18 and 36! Run them sumbitches over to 2, 12 and 42.” He clapped his hands, “Right now people!” His people didn’t know what their crazy Chief was up to, but they jumped into action, grabbing the wires and the materials necessary to do what he asked.

  Because whatever John E. Rodriguez came up with, it was sure to be spectacular.

  Yollin Super-Dreadnought Bridged-ael

  “That’s right, come to my party, you stinking aliens!” Admiral Throck-nel hissed in glee. He turned to his second, “Issue the command, all come about plan Br2.”

  Deep Space Ship G’laxix Gunt’eh

  “Captain, we are receiving more and more hits against our shields. We can’t see these things on our radar!”

  Captain Trell nodded his understanding and tapped his fingers on his Captain’s couch. “Pilot, move the ship up, then bring all power to front shields and push the engines past max, we MUST cross through that Gate!”

  The ship flew up, above their previous line of approach. Trell hoped it was enough to confuse whatever the aliens were throwing in his direction. The second command was almost certainly a command to die for those on his ship.

  He wasn’t sure what the maximum speed for going through an Annex Gate was, but he was willing to bet it was slower than what the G’laxix Gunt’eh was going to be doing when it passed through the gate.

  Puck Defense Destroyer Abraham

  Captain Adam Goldman wanted to swear in frustration. He had already provided the full stream of what they were seeing to the Admiral’s ship, but he told him to run his defense.

  “Puck Defenses A1-6 and B1-12 move from Section Two and come around to Section Four, at full speed. We have lost the …”

  The flares from the pucks starting to hit the Alien’s cloaked ship were the good news, the bad news was the ship was too damned close to the Gate.

  “FULL ATTACK, FULL ATTACK!” He barked out his command. All Pucks that could screamed towards the Yollin ship that had lost its cloaking power. It was certainly taking serious damage on its run to the Annex Gate.

  The end, when it happened, was almost too bright for those on the PDD Abraham to watch. The final flare-up of the Yollin ship looked like a small sun exploding. The problem was it had managed to get too close to the Yollin Gate.

  The pieces of the Yollin ship, cracking apart slammed into the swirling colors.

  Moments later, the Gates color’s dimmed, and common space could be seen through the middle cleanly.

  The Gate back to the Yollin system went dark.

  QBS Minnesota

  All ships in the Yollin system took off in weird patterns that took the humans minutes to figure out.

  “Son of a bitch,” Admiral Thomas hissed as the gate went dark, “Gott Verdammt, we didn’t think to ask where the ship that opened the gate went all those years ago.”

  “Sir,” the voice startled the Admiral for a moment before he realized who was contacting him.

  “Yes ArchAngel?” he asked.

  “It is my time, sir. I can’t allow them to get into whatever position they want to accomplish and catch me in a crossfire.”

  Thomas took a deep breath and let it out, “Approved and God speed, ArchAngel.”

  QBS ArchAngel

  “All Personnel, this is the Battleship ArchAngel. We have been commanded into battle and ‘We Will Not Surrender’ has been instituted by Our Empress. All Lockdown Protocols on this ship are removed. Leviathan Battleship ArchAngel is now fully operational and will fight until victorious… or dead.”

  Yollin Super-Dreadnought Bridged-ael