Fallout 35

Tylha
"Launching Alpha," says Anthi. "Launching Bravo."

I check. Everything is in place; our three ships have come through the gateway... towing the fourth... and our quarry, finally, is right there.

"Switch tractor beams to repulsor, then disengage," I order. Giving the dead freighter a shove away from the battle zone seems the safest bet. Though we've already transmitted our findings, it's still best not to give Klur a chance to destroy the physical evidence.

If that's what's in his mind. The QIb laH'e' is turning, S'kul fighters spilling from its launch bays - just as Shalo's fighters are streaking out from hers, and my Scorpions from the King Estmere.

"Sir -" Kluthli says.

"You don't have to watch this," I say to her. "Stand down."

"I - yes, sir." And she leaves the bridge at a run.

"Launching Charlie. Launching Delta," Anthi reports. Two more flights of Scorpions out there. "Three kilometres to engagement range." Not even a chance, now, for Klur to flee. Power is building up on the gateway to Klingon space, but too slowly, and he will have no time to reach it in any case.

"Try and open a channel," I say to F'hon.

"Already trying, skipper. But he's not responding."

What do I want him to say, in any case? I wonder. Surrender? He won't do that. Bluster, explanations, some attempt at justification? He can't do that. Then why do I want to speak to him? Some atavistic urge, perhaps, to look into my enemy's eyes, as I destroy him? Perhaps it's better this way... that we say what must be said with the fury of energy beams and torpedoes, not with words.

"S'kuls coming for us. Our fighters moving to intercept," Anthi reports.

"Shalo?"

"Her fighters are moving in to cover us. Virtue is heading for the QIb laH'e'." Ronnie can't guarantee her IFF system will distinguish quickly enough between Klur's S'kul fighters and Shalo's... so the Chimera's firepower will be targeted at the mother ship, instead. Both the Virtue and the Garaka are surging forward to engagement range now....

"Incoming fire! Antiprotons, and - tricobalt device!"

Tricobalt. Of course, that would be Klur's choice. "Try and kill that thing before it hits!" I order. "And if we can't - brace for impact!"

The fast-moving spot of light expands on my screen, disruptor fire crackling around it, but failing to reach it -

King Estmere rocks, and damage messages flash on my console.

"Forward shield down to thirty per cent," Anthi reports. "Minor impact damage, forward sections. Rotating shield frequencies and reinforcing forward shield."

Klur has picked us as his priority target. It makes sense; King Estmere is the strongest individual ship in our little group, and there's a lot to be said for taking out the toughest opposition first. But, while Klur sends antiproton bolts and tricobalt missiles at us, our disruptor cannons and plasma torpedoes are firing back at him - and my torpedo officers can send four or five balls of plasma out for each tricobalt warhead he can throw. And that's not counting the firepower of my two consorts, here -

On the viewer, the QIb laH'e' is haloed in multicoloured light, green from my and Shalo's disruptors, orange from Ronnie's phasers, the eldritch violet nimbus of a Hargh'peng torpedo, flashes of red as Shalo's S'kuls join the fray... Klur's first wave of fighters has been overwhelmed already; will he get a chance to launch another?

"Tricobalt warhead inbound!"

This time, a fighter from Delta flight wheels round, picks the device off two kilometers away from our forward screen. The antiproton barrage from the QIb laH'e' is not lessening, though, and that shield is weakening.

"Sir, should we come about and use the plasma hyperflux?" Anthi asks.

Tempting. But my disruptor cannons are the most powerful weapons I have, and I will keep them bearing on Klur as long as I can. "Wait. Keep hitting him. He can't keep this up too long."

"I'm not so sure we can," Anthi mutters. "QIb laH'e' launching fresh fighters."

My Scorpions spin around, sending plasma fire scorching into the new targets. Another salvo of torpedoes shrieks out of my launchers. There is no subtlety to this fight, no clever tactics - just a single immense slugging match, my ship and Klur's pounding at each other with all their titanic weaponry.

"Tricobalt warhead -"

Anthi doesn't have time to finish the warning before King Estmere's deck bucks beneath us; lights flicker, and there is a burst of sparks from some console on the bridge. "Forward shield down to eight per cent!" Anthi yells. "Sir, we can't take another hit like that."

I spit. "Come about," I order, "ready the hyperflux -"

"She's going!" a voice cries - I don't know whose.

It happens suddenly. On the screen, the QIb laH'e' is surrounded by coloured light - and then a white light glows inside her, shining through the roundels and the strange runic markings on that blackened hull, then tearing and burning that hull apart, shattering it into a myriad glowing fragments as the warp core breaches.

The QIb laH'e' burns and bursts asunder, and slowly fades, Klur and his ship and all his villainies turned to ashes and dust, to drift forever between the stars.