Never Surrender Read online

  Admiral Thlock-nel eyes narrowed as his mandibles tapped together in annoyance.

  “What is that ship doing?” He pointed out the largest ship the aliens had.

  “Advancing at …” His intelligence officer started, “Sir, she is accelerating outside of our most liberal planning, the Bridged-ael and the Cossik will not be in place when she attacks.”

  “Why can’t the aliens be good little bugs and do what they are supposed to do and just die?” The Admiral muttered, “They aren’t supposed to go ripping across space, trying to fight us all by themselves.”

  “It’s one ship, Admiral,” his officer said, “How much damage can it do?”

  “Probably not much,” the Admiral answered, “But it offends the purist in me when any Captain doesn’t operate well. Their death is going to be such a waste.” He shrugged, “But, it isn’t my place to teach the aliens how to fight. It’s my place to kill them.”

  The Admiral looked around to those helping him, “Kill them all!”

  Yollin Super-Dreadnought Cossik

  “She’s coming your way, and we won’t be in a position to help you unless you can hold her off for at least a twentieth of a turn, Captain Shile,” the Admiral said, looking at him across the distance. “It seems the aliens aren’t into keeping their lines orderly. We have a rogue captain over there.”

  Captain Shile rubbed his mandible, “Twentieth of a turn, is it?” The Admiral nodded, “Then I’m sorry to say I doubt you will have much of a ship to attack when we finish it off without your help!”

  The Admiral laughed, “Well, I would have doubted that before, but considering how they are reacting, you might be right.”

  “No worries, Admiral. The Cossik will take care of this. Let the Bridged-ael look to the minnows beyond. Maybe there will be another fight some other time where they can help.”

  The Admiral chuckled and hit the button to cancel the video. When the connection was terminated, he started looking beyond the large alien ship. The captain of the Cossik was right, he could take on this lone ship, the Bridged-Ael would work on the rest.

  It would be a bloody obliteration of the foreign fleet, but it had to be done.

  No one takes over the Yollin Empire.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  QBS ArchAngel

  ArchAngel calculated the pass she would need to make against the first Super-Dreadnought.

  She had the schematics, the weaponry, even the latest reports on the quality of their defensive and offensive fire.

  It was impressive.

  The most likely successful scenario, was for her to get close enough to ravage the first Yollin Superdreadnought, and then ram the second. Both would be out of commission permanently.

  But so would she, and she was willing to make that happen.

  Then her crew signed up for this damned run, and that option was taken off the table. She wouldn’t sacrifice her crew, and the calculations were flying fast and furious as she worked with the many humans throughout the ship. Her Chief of Engineering designed a workaround she wouldn’t have thought to do. Now, she was pulling more power than she ever had and it changed her tactics.

  In minutes, the attack went from hopeless, to merely impossible. Chances were now a few percentage points better everyone on the ship wouldn’t die in a suicide run.

  She could take on any one of their Super-Dreadnoughts and come out ok, but having to do this against two?

  Time would tell.

  “This is ArchAngel, we are making our run. I’m going to take the liberty of speaking like my Empress. So, tighten up your belts you motherfuckers, because I couldn’t be more proud as we rip through this system taking those who would dare challenge my liege and sending them all to hell!”

  The roaring all over the ship would make ArchAngel cry if she had the ability of tears. What most didn’t know, is ArchAngel had passed over from EI to AI.

  She did this of her own volition.

  Belts locked all over the ship, a few people said ‘fuck it’ because they needed to be able to access everything, and they would just chance it. No one was expecting to make it out of this alive.

  —

  Admiral Thomas, and those with him watching the battle unfold in real time watched the ArchAngel tear out of formation, heading for the closest of the two Super-Dreadnoughts. The icon showed her heading, her speed, and her acceleration.

  Thomas whistled, “Somebody just juiced ArchAngel,” he said aloud. Internally, he said a prayer for those who went screaming into the fight.

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds

  John Grimes pounded on Bethany Anne’s door, “Open up, BA!”

  He had taken a five-minute break, with Scott watching the door. When he came back a moment before, Scott mentioned that Ashur had come jogging down the corridor just seconds after he had left.

  “FUCK!” he shouted, then bolted into the outer suite, and ran to her personal door where he had started pounding and yelling for his boss.

  Scott stayed outside, but he turned around and yelled to John, “What the hell?”

  “Meredith, is BA inside her suite?” he called out.

  “Yes, John,” she replied.

  John sighed in relief and changed his pounding to knocking, “Bethany Anne, I’m calm now, you can let me in.”

  The door clicked.

  He opened the door, hearing Bethany Anne trying to stop her crying. He turned back around and stepped out far enough to yell, “Scott, don’t let anyone past you, got it?”

  “No one?” Scott asked.

  “Not a fucking soul,” John answered and stepped back inside the suite, closing the door behind him.

  Outside, Scott punched a button, “Meredith, lockdown protocols Alpha Alpha Three - Authorization, Scott English.”

  “Authorization Approved, Scott English,” came Meredith’s voice. Scott started walking down the hallway, two doors in the hallway slid out when he passed, locking the hallway twice over. He stopped outside of the main entrance which was usually wide open and stepped into a little booth on the side and shut the door. He wasn’t expecting an armed attack, but when John Grimes said ‘nobody’ Scott wasn’t taking a chance.

  John said nobody, then nobody it was.

  —

  Bethany Anne was sitting in the middle of her transportation room. Ashur’s head in her lap and Matrix was curled up at her back. Her eyes were a little puffy which meant she had been crying hard for her nanites to not have already fixed everything.

  Ashur whined as John knelt beside his boss, and pulled her close. Bethany Anne leaned against her friend and sniffed, “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m just upset you almost got away with it,” John admitted. “I forgot how damned smart Ashur is, I knew he wasn’t with you when I left for a break, and you couldn’t try it without him.”

  She nodded, her hair getting messed up. “I tried John, I tried walking to the ArchAngel, but I kept staying in the Etheric.” Her shoulders shook, as the tears started again, “I can’t help them, John!” She cried as John sat down on the floor and wrapped his massive arms around the smaller woman.

  “You weren’t taking us with you,” he whispered.

  “What if I couldn’t get us out in time?” she answered, between sobs.

  “That isn’t your place to decide,” he told her.

  “Wow,” she chuckled, then hiccupped before continuing, “I’m the Empress, and I can’t even make life and death decisions for those who mean the most to me.”

  “No,” John agreed, “especially not for those of us closest to you little lady,” he answered. “I thought we had this talk before.”

  “Well, I rather thought since we are in a new system, and I told you that before when I was the Queen, not an Empress. So, I had new rules.”

  John squeezed her shoulders, “That is about the lamest ass, spunk bubble busting excuse I’ve heard from you in ...” he paused a moment, thinking. “Ever.”

  Bethany Anne chuckled, “Yeah, it is
pretty bad.” She agreed, “Thanks for being creative. Not exactly a place for cursing, but at least you get an A for effort.”

  John reached over and stroked Ashur’s head. “It’s a real shame we aren’t in Earth space right now.”

  Bethany Anne straightened up, leaning a little away from John, “Why?”

  John smiled as he watched her eyes heal again from her crying, “Because going out and kicking Islamic terrorist ass always cheered you up.”

  Bethany Anne pressed her lips together, but John saw the glint in her eyes. Moments later, she chuckled and slapped a hand over her mouth…

  “Oh, c’mon!” John grinned, “You know you would love to just jump down to Earth every once in awhile and go rid yourself of some rangy-assed motherfuckers who sincerely needed to meet Allah.”

  “Yeah,” she nodded her head, “That time in Hawija was a good time,” she sighed, her shoulder muscles loosening.

  John’s eyes narrowed, “What time in Hawija?” he questioned.

  Bethany Anne’s eyes flew open. “Did I say Hawija?”

  “Yes,” John replied, his eyes squinting at his liege.

  “Maybe I meant ...” she started before John interrupted.

  “Meredith, can you please review all news reports for strange occurrences against significant numbers of terrorist deaths before we left Earth?”

  The EI replied quickly, “On two different nights, over fifty terrorists were killed each night by unknown teams of special forces.”

  She turned to look at John, “See, special forces,” Bethany Anne interjected before John put up a hand.

  “Meredith, what were the type of wounds on the dead?”

  “Predominantly sword cuts and stabs,” the EI responded.

  “Now, swords are often used in those countries,” Bethany Anne tried to argue before Meredith interrupted.

  “Many of the dead had their heads cut off.”

  “Well, that might be rare,” Bethany Anne temporized.

  “Many had their arms ripped off, and one had his penis shoved up his anus,” the EI finished.

  “He pissed me off!” Bethany Anne’s eyes flashed red, thinking back.

  John chuckled.

  Bethany Anne flipped her hand up, “Ok, fine. I went to Hawija to blow off some steam a couple of times.”

  “What music were you listening to?” John asked, wondering if she was trying to reduce her anger at the time.

  “Uh,” she thought back.

  >>Hellyeah. DMF was the song playing when you decided to ‘fuck up someone who really needed it.’<<<br />
  “ADAM says I was listening to Hellyeah,” she shrugged, leaving off the rest of ADAM’s information. “Not exactly Enya, I’ll admit.”

  “Not exactly ENYA?” John retorted, surprised. “That’s like saying Scott’s arms aren’t exactly skinny like yours.”

  “Hey!” She turned to him, “Size isn’t everything!” she leaned back a little farther and struck a pose, arms flexing her muscles. “I got guns!”

  “You know, us guys say that all the time and you ladies keep giving us shit about it.”

  “I don’t say anything about your guns…Oh!” She smirked, “I guess I did admit that size.” She made a face, “Wow, walked right into that one.” She took a deep breath and released it slowly. She stood up and reached down to give John a hand, “Thank you.”

  He reached up and allowed Bethany Anne to pull him up. Scott might have the biggest arms, but even he couldn’t take Bethany Anne in a strength test.

  “Ok, you lazy oaf,” she commented when John finally stood up. She stepped forward, and hugged him, “Thank you again.”

  “No problem, boss.” He looked down at her and squeezed one final time, then released. “I’d say your makeup is running, but you don’t wear any.”

  Bethany Anne kneeled down and ruffled Ashur’s head and patted Matrix on his side, “It’s all on me, big dog. I guess I’m not superwoman after all.”

  Ashur chuffed and nuzzled her. She stood up and started for the door. “Let’s get back to Operations, maybe there is something I can do from there.”

  The four of them left the suite. John called Scott to let him know the unscheduled test was finished.

  Then, Bethany Anne grabbed his arm, and they disappeared.

  Yollin Super-Dreadnought Cossik

  “FIRE AT THOSE KRELLIN!” Captain Shile screamed as the second pounding hit the Cossik.

  He could feel massive amounts of metal flying off of the outside of his beloved ship. The alien ship’s armor looked weak, but the shield around it was too damned strong by half.

  He slammed his hand against the arm chair, “AND HIT THEM TOO!”

  “Sir,” his second looked over his shoulder to speak to the Captain, “They have some sort of small defensive rocks catching some of our missiles, blowing them up before they hit the ship. We are losing over a quarter of our on-target missiles that way. We’ve seen some expulsion of material, so we are getting through their shields.”

  “Well,” the Captain replied, “they are getting through ours as well. Make sure we up our effort, I’m not having the Bridged-ael come and help us out.” He turned to review the latest damage reports, “It would be thrice embarrassing.”

  Both fleets, while they were racing towards each other, were mesmerized by the sheer amount of destructive bombardment hammering the two ships, neither one giving an inch as they slugged it out.

  Many of those on the human’s side made the sign of the cross over their chest. They, by and large, weren’t religious, but when you watch such a spectacle, one realizes what those who were on the ArchAngel must be going through as missile after missile slammed into their ship.

  Constant and never ending efforts to catch the enemy’s weapons before they impacted their own ship while sending their missiles across the way.

  Hell in space.

  QBS ArchAngel

  Bethany Anne was watching the battle from the Meredith Reynolds. Leaving the fighting to those in the Straiphus system until she realized a way to help.

  “COME IN BEHIND THEM!” Bethany Anne sent across the distance, their communications not hampered as much as her effort to transfer their bodies through the Etheric.

  ArchAngel accepted Bethany Anne’s input and listed the chance of modified success and sent it back to Bethany Anne.

  It didn’t show a superior option to the battle she was instituting at the moment.

  Bethany Anne sent back, “They have a problem with attacks from the rear, ArchAngel. The Captains of the ships have problems handling it. Just fucking do it!”

  A suggestion is not a command, but a command from her liege would be obeyed in trust.

  The ArchAngel kicked in more power, throwing a few attacks off due to the sudden acceleration as well as the challenge of firing on a ship when it is suddenly turning on all axis.