Tactical Space Wu-Shu

When You Plan Accordingly And Shit Still Goes South

As it turned out, that glowing light I saw was indeed the Daedalus's primary weapon powering up. All I remembered was it was called the Genocide Scythe. I definitely didn't want it doing any of it's scything anywhere near the Archangel. Archangel clearly felt the same, it ceased bulldozing through the ships and started destroying them with precision cluster beam strikes from it's halos. After a few seconds of clearing the field like this, Archangel was reporting in. "Esteban are you able to take control of my halos and still maintain the weapons grid I rigged up for you? I will need most of my focus to keep us from being destroyed by what's about to be coming our way." Esteban paled slightly but his answer was quick and forthcoming. "I am, but what's coming our way exactly?" Archangel's grave reply made me grit my teeth in angst. "You don't want to know, Munitions Officer." He looked like he was about to be sick so I quickly intervened to make sure he stayed focused on the task at hand. "Esteban, remember those weapon diagrams that you thought were upgrades for the Archangel? The primary weapon array? That's what we're up against right now, and I'd rather not find out if that shit lives up to it's name so stay focused, stay sharp, and we'll get out of this in one piece. You have my word on that." Nodding in appeasement, Esteban renewed his focus on the tasks that had been given to him. After a few tense minutes Archangel made the report we were all dreading to hear. "They are preparing to fire. I'm working with Jaeger to initiate evasive action, I'm also diverting all nonessential power to the shields. A few of the lights flickered in and out in silent testimony to his words and I felt the inertial dampeners jump into place as we rocketed around the battlefield trying to put as many destroyed ships in between us and the impending enemy fire as we could. As soon as I began to release the breath I had unknowingly been holding, a flash of green lit up the darkness of space capturing my attention. At the same time Archangel screamed over the speakers. "BRACE FOR IMPACT!!" Immediately after there was a massive boom and the ship shook violently knocking us all from our chairs. They hit my ship with that damned Genocide Scythe! Now it was more personal than ever. I desperately needed to know the condition of the ship and the crew though before I could worry about vengeance. The lights flickered on and off ominously and I got up, blinking afterimage spots from my vision. "Status Report!!" Archangel was silent. A chill worked it way frigidly down my spine at that. "Why don't I hear Archangel?" A technician quickly supplied the answer. "That attack was similar to our nano E.M.P.'S sir. From what I can see here in the data, when it lands a successful strike it discharges a payload of nanites that are designed to specifically target and neutralize enemy A.I. and in this case ours is the enemy A.I. that's been silenced." How were they able do that? It brought up other questions though. "When you say neutralized, do you mean as in detained? Or as in dead? It would really put a wrench in my retirement plans if they just killed our A.I." The technician took a moment to respond, her eyes flying back and forth rapidly across her console as she interpreted the incoming data. "Neutralized in the sense of being imprisoned sir. The nanites have the Archangel in sleep mode essentially. They've ported over the main consciousness to the Daedalus so we wont be able to interact with Archangel. We can still manually control the ship, but we're flying solo for now." I repressed the urge to go into a raging fit, the crew needed me now more than ever and if I broke so easily then so would they. I would stand fast so that they could continue to draw strength from my own, even if it was just a facade for their benefit at times. Wasn't that what true strength was anyway? The ability to keep your troops orientated and motivated through example no matter the obstacle? I had no other option available to me, such was the path of the leader, to push ever onward regardless of the odds against me. "If we can control the ship then that's all we need. What's the damage? Can we escape into the orbit of the Jupiter research station if need be? I'm actually surprised we haven't been dragged into it's gravity well yet with our shields breached." She brought up a 3D hologram of the Archangel. "We have a severe hull breach spanning across various stations, and the engineering bay is reporting a critical loss there. All personnel are accounted for though, this loss is something about a microbe. Either way, we need to get in front of this immediately sir. The Archangel is in great need of repair, but without the A.I. to initiate the self repair protocol there isn't much we can do aside from take care of the more pressing matters until we have a definitive solution." As I took a look for myself at the hologram display I saw exactly what she meant. There was a gaping hole along the right flank of the ship as if a massive claw had gouged out a portion of the ship with a wild swipe. The sight broke my heart but I could and would not falter. There was also the loss of the microbe to consider as well. We were nowhere near close to fully understanding it and now it was gone. First thing's first. "Jaeger, are you able to fly? It's time." At Jaeger's curt nod I turned my attention to munitions. "Esteban, arm a brace of those nano E.M.P.'S . I want to be sure that when we hit them they're completely defenseless. Send five, one right after the other." Esteban saluted sharply from munitions. "Yes sir!! Deploying on my mark. Three, two, one, mark!" I sat down at my console as the first nano E.M.P. streaked it's way across the graveyard of ships towards the Daedalus. Thrusters screaming, it weaved around and through the debris field haphazardly and erratically but on a definite collision course with the Daedalus. Once it reached midway another deployed as the first E.M.P. came under heavy defensive fire from the Daedalus. It detonated successfully as it exploded from the multitude of missiles, and their weapons went silent. The second E.M.P. rushed in and detonated as well at three quarters range with a third hot on it's heels. It went on this way until five nano E.M.P.'S had detonated, the last three blossoming into their brilliant mushroom clouds at point blank range. Their defenses were down but without Archangel awake to continue the hack we were still dead in the water. We would have to board them, I knew Zakaehev was against it but it was the only path forward. "We're going on board, we can't continue the hack without Archangel, so we'll have to do this maually. And this way, we'll be able to free our Archangel from that nanite prison as well." The bridge snapped to immediate attention, breaking into a synchronized salute. "SIR!!" That's the strength and unity that got us this far, and would see us go much farther!