The Avengers Strike
“Bay doors deployed, missiles prepped Sir!” Henbles shouted in the comm device. Sean smiled, the gamble had paid off, the sole strike of the Hikomi, piloted by Telo had taken the attention off the FusTek who had now managed to put some distance between them and the Kraken ship. The Linux had maneuvered itself between the two, taking the attention off the Hikomi as well. “Roll, 12 degrees, pitch 34, align tubes 1-8, arm avengers, prepare for salvo.” Sean’s command sounded like a bash script, but everyone knew what to do. “Fire”
The above images were extracted for later analysis. The barrage of projectiles fired from the Linux was a full hit of the lower section. Not where Sean had been aiming for, but given the fact that these missiles had never been tested in space he was surprised to have hit anything at all.
The footage above was captured from the rear camera of the FusTek and clearly shows the impacts. There is however no damage to the alien craft. It had however now turned its attention to the Linux and started pulling that in. “Lateral truster’s full power, roll 1 degree up, prepare the Arrow Mk2.” Sean sounded calm, but the heat of battle was hitting him as well. “Electrical surges in reactor 2, rear roll thrusters offline, EPS grid on starboard blown,” Henbles was calling out the status reports. Clearly, Lord Malbek was tightening its grip.
The failed torpedos
“Firing, tube 1 and 2!” Henbles pushed the red button and 2 heavy guided missiles launched from their fixed position. “Firing up the main drive to flank,” Sean wrestled the Linux from the tractor beam and took the high ground. “Both missiles missed, I think it is affecting the guidance system.” Henbles said.
By now they had run out of “point and shoot” missiles, using the hinges they folded the small heatshields that had protected the cargo bay away, and raised the last two of the Arrow Mk2. These would be decoupled, nudged from the cargo bay, and then manually pointed, locked, and fired. “Arrow 03 away,” Henbles was focussed at the armory station, where Sean maneuvered the Linux to match speed. “Missed again, dammit,” Henbles shouted. “Language,” Sean said, “you have 3 more chances son, don’t worry.”
Perhaps that was the confirmation that Henbles needed because Arrow 04 was a hit, again bouncing off the armored plating, but telemetry showed that the enemy was responding and in doing so had put itself on a sub-orbital trajectory. “Right where I want you,” Sean said to himself as he put even more distance between the Linux and her opponent. “Deploy the long stick,”
The Long Stick
Down to her last two missiles, the Linux deployed an Arrow Mk4. This long-range tactical missile carried 3 times the fuel of the Arrow Mk2, deploying it from a longer range meant more speed, orbital mechanics started to play a role at this distance though. Henbles had to aim below the target then within a 400-meter switch to target locking.
“Impact, a direct hit in the command section,” Henbles shouted. The missile had now been traveling at more than 500 m/s when it hit the target, and rather than bouncing off the armor plating, it went straight through it. Ripping the structural integrity of the spacecraft apart, before it reappeared on the other side, violently dancing in circles.
The video showed the marksman skills of Henbles, firing at almost 2 km distance he hit the exact spot where the craft had a weakness. The immense speed did the rest. “Coming about, how is our friend doing?” Sean asked.
Slaying the Gods
Later analysis of the images showed what happened in detail. The initial explosion took out most structural elements in the center of the craft, but also impacted the canisters of Kraken juice that were stored in the top layer and fully charged.
From the explosion pattern, it can not be discerned if the Kraken chamber was directly hit, but we believe so.
“Here you can see the secondary explosion,” Henbles explained to Sean. “This is where the magic happens, it’s the power source going critical.” Sean decided that despite a little extra distance couldn’t hurt, he was actually going to move in.
The parts started shifting and it was a good thing they were on a suborbital trajectory. “Do you think that thing is still in there?” Sean put on the comms. “FusTek has some fancy sensors,” Henbles said. “First let’s pick up Telo.” Sean said.
Scanning for survivors
Telo set out a rendez-vous with the Linux, the ride was a bit rocky, the whole craft was a bit unbalanced and Telo had went dark to hide so she had lost navigation, but once it was back up, she could home in on the signal.
As it maneuvered itself in the cargo bay, they could see the FusTek approach on the starboard side. “Whoo, you really cleaned out this place,” Telo said when she docked.
Thompwin hooked up with Sean to go over their position. “We need to raise the pe by a couple of kilometers or we’ll be toast in an orbit or two,” Thompwin said, “Enjoy the lift son,” Sean smiled back. “Before that, I want to scan the debris though.”
A Fiery Demise
That was where the others were working on, Telo and Dobal had tied the sensors of the Linux and FusTek together, and soon the infrared images started to come in.
“I’m reading, over 30 chunks, some are really large,” Arlan said. “None of those juice containers survived, I guess they caused the secondary explosions. All are on a suborbital trajectory.” They kept scanning for 20 more minutes then Sean started a slow rise of the orbit.
Had they scanned a little further they would have found a Kraken regeneration chamber, directly tied to the Kraken drive. Without the Kraken juice, however, Lord Malbek was unable to change its fate. As it approached the atmosphere it closed its eyelids, unable to escape a fiery demise as it would enter the atmosphere.
“I’ve underestimated them, twice.” it thought.
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