Pixie Hazard, Archibald Bradford [100 best novels of all time .TXT] 📗

side of the seat block just as Davie executed her maneuver in a bid to distribute the railgun impacts to other parts of the hull and prevent them from boring a hole somewhere.

“Stardust transmitting in the blind, we’ve lost main power to the bridge!” The pleas of the beleaguered vessel’s captain were getting downright frantic; “Please, break off your attack! There are three hundred people aboard this vessel! I don’t even know if anyone can hear-”

The communication cut off in a burst of static and Donnie cursed again.

If the Stardust’s radio was out, than shit must really be bad.

“Mendez, ignore the little prick chewing on our ass, concentrate all fire on the one fucking them up! Their armour won’t take much more of this!”

Though the FCO did as she was told, she couldn’t help but state the obvious, her point made all the more clear by the klaxon alarms blaring around them and the constant booming of the enemy weapons impacting their hull.

“We won’t get them both Skipper, not a chance.”

“We’re not playing to win, we’re buying time! If we can-”

Another alarm came on then, this one much more urgent.

“I’ve got a massive drop in pressure on the lower deck, they made a hole!” Davie declared tensely, as if to support her girlfriend’s point; “I’m rolling again. Aft, eighty degrees, everybody stand by for some G’s.”

This time she couldn’t afford to wait on Eniella to adjust her targeting parameters, executing the roll immediately.

The communicator bouncing in front of her nose, Donnie had to grip the handles with both hands now to keep herself upright as the Pixie pitched around wildly; the ship was shaking constantly from the barrage, its bulkheads creaking from the strain.

The sound of the enemy shells impacting her carapace grew much louder as they put the thicker armour of the cockpit to the test.

But unlike the civilian vessel she was covering, the Pixie Hazard was built for combat, so even with a hole in her belly her essential systems were unaffected as she fought on like a rabid wolverine.

Once the captain was able to stand without white knuckling the handles, she let go with one hand and grabbed for the coms again, her fingers tangling in the spiral cord as she snagged it.

“Lewanna Central, shit is getting really dicey up here! You got an ETA on fire-support?”

The authoritative voice came back again, and for once he had something useful to say.

“Pixie Hazard, class-E countermeasures authorized. I hope you have good aim or you’re going to prison and I’m facing a firing squad.”

Evidently the Stardust’s desperate communications were having an effect on the ground.

Donnie didn’t even have time to be surprised as barely two seconds later Eniella pulled the trigger on the Dobermans, the warheads leaving their batteries with a deep clunking sound that they all felt.

“Dogs are out! All hands brace for impact!” She cried out; “We are way too close for comfort!”

A split second after she spoke, the shockwave of the first antimatter warhead’s detonation impacted the Pixie’s hull, slamming Donnie into the wall as she lost her grip on the seat block.

The second shockwave hit a moment later, but she was already on the floor so it just bounced her around a bit as she turtled into the fetal position in a bid to protect her spine.

“Good hit, good hit!” Eniella crowed; “Both bogies destroyed!”

But her exultation was short lived as the coms crackled to life again, the Stardust’s captain’s voice distorted with static.

“-say again: systems critical! We are dead in the water with multiple casualties! We restored power to the bridge but who knows for how long! Is anyone reading this?”

Scrambling to her feet with a painful grunt, Donnie leaned over the side of Davie’s seat, crowding her again.

“We’re reading you. Stand-by. Reeves, open the shutters and bring us about for a visual assessment.”

Now that the proximity and depressurization alarms had stopped, not to mention the enemy wasn’t beating on their hull anymore, it was almost too quiet in the cockpit.

Once the shutters were open it didn’t take long for them to spot the scuttled ship; the remains of the pirate gunboat was rapidly drifting away from it, the debris highlighted in a number of places by the remnant purplish blaze of antimatter from the Doberman that killed it.

But the damage it had heaped onto the Stardust with its railguns was extensive.

Chunks of broken armour were floating in a halo around the mammoth vessel and her midsection had an inferno shooting out into space where her attacker had found a particularly soft spot.

Donnie had to work to keep her voice level.

“Okay Stardust, shut down all non essentials, in case you didn’t notice, your shit is on fire. Lewanna Central, hostiles neutralized and we are commencing rescue operations, but we are not equipped for this, could really use a hand already.”

But it was a woman’s voice that responded this time.

“This is the warship Andromeda Promise. We are approaching your coordinates, ETA forty seconds. Stand down all weaponry or you will be fired upon.”

“You missed that part knucklehead! Deploy rescue craft!” Donnie snapped back before softening her tone again; “How we doing on that shutdown Stardust?”

After a bit more static the voice came back and it was not good news.

“Reactor shutdown failed, we’ve got a full-blown systems cascade, they must have hit one of the condensers! Passengers are in the lifeboats! We are abandoning ship! Repeat: all hands, abandon ship!”

As they watched, a number of secondary explosions tore through the hull around the inferno, lighting up their faces as more and more flame shot out into vacuum.

“Eniella-”

“On it Skip. Andromeda Promise, we have good launch on multiple escape craft, I’m tagging them now for you to intercept.”

Apparently satisfied that the Pixie was indeed there