Chapter 12: The Ring of Destiny Part 2

“What is a battle? It is the first question that any warrior must ask prior to any engagement with the enemy. Some will say that it is chaos. Some will say that it is an unnecessary tragedy. Others will say that it is the moment of violence between two opponents, where one will be the underlying victor. In reality, each individual has a convenient answer for it. However, any soldier of any Itrean clan is fully aware that a battle is the culmination of preparedness. Soldiers are trained to handle the rigors of violence. Equipment and guns are well maintained. The captains and leaders know what is at stake and endorse their troops. The environment is set. A battle is the final product, and the only method of stopping the opposing clan is to commit to the destruction of the other. Often, a battle can be the simplest form of event for the most important factors, and its outcome is already decided before it is to ever take place,” Gular’shel, 2303 AD.

The outline of space stood in front of the Gular’shel. The planet of Bog’Ko’Lif sat in the vast distance. Its location was in the outer reaches of Itrean space, the furthest Yutilian kingdom of them all. It served as the primary capital of the Shish, and all for good reason.

It had been a little over a day. Scott sat in the familiar seat on the bridge, strapped in along with Yui’to and Veleshar, who were not far from him. A gentle dark purple light slowly flashed and went out. The man was doing his best to look through the familiar periscope he had gained experience using.

The star of Bog’Ko’Lif was a small red dwarf. The seemingly lonely burning ball of gas kept several planets in its grasp. However, the only habitable world barely had much of an atmosphere. The lit surface consisted of red sand and melted blue ocean water. Instead of living in the direct line of continuous sunlight, the population had chosen to live in the dark side of the tidally locked world. Only a few lights from the wandering freighters and surface cities gave any hint of activity. Unlike Gu’ii’lo’trelda, Bog’Ko’Lif had much less space traffic, even for one of the five main capital worlds of the T’rintar clan.

It was all on purpose. Scott looked around with the periscope, trying to mark the place. The history of the Shish had all revolved around the concept of anonymity. It was almost a common troupe, some taken more seriously than other Itrean species. The population found a home and refuge, but with the Shish, their goal was to ensure that no one would find them. To be found would warrant death and destruction upon them. It became their philosophy and, ultimately, their religion. Even now, Scott would look around and see nothing but stars and the distant dark world. However, what he couldn’t see were the supposed one thousand cloaked battleships, kept hidden from his own sensor display.

“I can’t see any of them...,” Scott said. He kept his grip on the periscope as he looked around.

“They’re there,” Veleshar replied as she looked at the screen ahead of her.

“Any enemy fleet would think that there was nothing here.”

“That’s the idea,” Yui’to added.

“We’re not going to crash into one of them by accident, right?”

“No. Most are in small groups of one hundred either in close orbit or far from our sensors in ever trying to pick up. We’re in the common travel route, which they will avoid us unless we intend to head to their planet.”

The ship began to alter its heading, and Scott could feel his body be tugged to the right. The large, cloaked, heavy battleship remained invisible in space but still fired its vectoring thrusters to its starboard side.

It was here that Scott could see a small circular gate ring far from the planet. It consisted of two spinning centripetal rings connected to an active halo-like device. When the man turned his periscope, he could see a gray cylindrical ship.

“I think I see the Rampage,” Scott said.

“Yes,” Veleshar said, looking at her sensor panel. “Looks like the Rampage has its gate probe ring established not far from it.”

The man began to zoom in on the Rampage as the Gular’shel slowly closed in on Bog’Ko’Lif’s ring. The dilapidated Earth Battleship was nothing like Scott had ever seen before. It looked like a UHN warship, but it almost looked like it had been cobbled together in an ad hoc status. It had a smooth circular centripetal ring similar to the older Helix class Battleships, but its rear module consisted of multiple red supply containers strapped together. The port side of the battleship had large thruster packs to it. On the other side consisted of weapon arrays. Darin wasn’t kidding that the Rampage was a gallery of ancient weapons. The entire starboard side had four triple turrets that could swivel to the ship’s right side. A large turret resided in the front dorsal side, most likely the ship’s powerful flak cannon capable of firing small nuclear ordinance. A large dish and a mult-launcher were on the ventral side, most likely the ship’s decoy launcher. Besides the aft and stern engines, the forward bow had a large forward bay and an improvised hangar bay. Underneath it was the ship’s forward-mounted railgun. On the ship’s side were two flags, one being the blue Earth flag, while the other was the black skull and cross-bones flag.

The Rampage was already completing its gate probe ring in front of it.

“I have to hand it to Darin,” Scott remarked. “The engineering to cobble together junk and make it work is astonishing.”

“Old Shal’rein warships used to be like that,” Veleshar happily remarked. “Before the Jalgren Empire, our ships wouldn’t have rings on them. They looked like sea serpents with arrays of guns that could be mustered for them, even as far as ancient cannons.”

“Not like today,” Yui’to said with some agitation. “Our ships looked like they came from the ocean.”

Scott took a deep breath. In less than ten more minutes, the battle would begin. The Gular’shel was slowly heading into position. Everything had to be timed appropriately. For a few seconds, the man looked around him. Much as he had seen the bridge operate before, the crew were attuned to their stations. They had been intensely silent. Undoubtedly, Scott knew everyone was bracing themselves for an all-out assault. Even the man felt the hint of anticipation within him.

“How are you, Scott?” Veleshar asked him.

“It’s strange,” he replied as he sat back on his chair. “I don’t really feel that scared with what’s about to happen.”

“That’s good ... I could use some of that right now.”

Scott could admire Veleshar’s remark just now. She almost seemed fearless. But it was the first time hearing her say that just before charging into an all-out fight to the death. Yui’to said nothing, of course. Was the Greater Adjunct somehow patronizing him? Or did she genuinely mean that? Her tone almost made it sound like she wasn’t scared at all.

No ... she knew she could say that because not everyone on the bridge understood English. Of course, the hint of her emotions was showing. Scott knew that she was telling the truth. She was nervous about the fight.

“I look forward to the battle,” Yui’to said.

“I haven’t felt this way since the simulation with my daughter,” Veleshar remarked.

“Your daughter ... his mate bested us.”

“I know...”

It was Veleshar’s last chance. She could call off the upcoming battle. Anybody would understand. Scott knew they were heading straight into a hornet’s nest.

“Braking thrusters are firing,” Yui’to remarked. “We’re about two minutes from the ring.”

Scott could feel himself lightly pushed forward, his straps holding him in place. He lowered one of his hands to help brace himself, feeling his holstered pistol. Then he gripped onto his uniform.

Veleshar’s nostrils flared. “Yui’to ... status of the ship?”

“ ... All shells primed,” Yui’to remarked. “Cloaking field at 50%. Efficiency is at 100%. Full power from main reactor, efficiency at 100%. Batteries are charged. All systems operational.”

It felt unnecessary, but it was Veleshar’s way of letting Yui’to know that she wasn’t going to pull out of this mission.

“Good...,” Veleshar replied.

“We’re receiving a hail from the Rampage,” Yui’to said.

“Understood.”

The Greater Adjunct reached over and tapped the main console. A digital display appeared depicting the humanoid cowboy’s face. Darin displayed fearlessness, something that Scott all but expected at this point.

“Y’all feel ready for this fight?” Darin asked Veleshar.

“Yes,” Veleshar replied. “How’s your status?”

“Ready when you are. My ring is prepped, waiting for your go.”

“Make sure you time the shots perfectly to my departure, Darin. Our survival may depend on it.”

“Don’t worry. My cannon was able to snipe the observation post perfectly. I reckon it can hit a dime on Luna from Texas alone.”

“The moment my ship will depart, we will lose communication. Good luck to you, Darin ... and thank you.”

“Anytime,” Darin tipped his hat lightly.

The channel was partially closed, leaving it on audio only to ensure everything would fall into sync.

“Receiving a hail from Greater Adjunct Siera’lara,” Yui’to said.

Veleshar switched the channel feed so it depicted the Shish’s face. The Yutilian wore a special black golden face mask that covered her neck and snout. Only her eyes seem to communicate with Veleshar.

The two spoke in Itrean briefly. Scott almost regretted not putting on his translator devices, but he feared that if the ship was going to be doing rapid maneuvering, they could potentially slip out of his ears and fly away. Instead, he kept them in his pocket, ready if needed. However, he knew enough of what was being said prior to the whole briefing.

The display depicting the Shish was switched over to audio-only.

The braking thrusters had come to a halt. Scott could see the full size of the green ring in front of the Gular’shel. It was like looking at a mouth ready to gobble up the large battleship.

“I have communication established with Lesser Adjunct Ju,” Yui’to said.

“Understood,” Veleshar replied. Unlike the prior audio and visual feeds, this one was audio-only. Unlike Siera’lara, the captain of one of the cloaking battleships simply spoke to Veleshar as they communicated in Itrean. Scott knew that Veleshar was coordinating everything with the other T’rintar-cloaked battleships that would also be entering the fray.

“Yui’to,” Veleshar ordered. “Increase cloaking field strength to maximum.”

“Understood,” Yui’to replied.

The main viewscreen began to grow more hazy. It was a reminder for Scott to look through the main periscope to get a better viewpoint.

“Siera’lara has commenced with powering up false gate arrays with the other Shish gate rings,” Veleshar explained. “Ju’s fleet is also powering up their gate probe rings. Begin powering up Bog’Ko’Lif’s gate ring.”

“Understood, Greater Adjunct,” Yui’to replied.

“Powering our ring,” Darin replied.

Scott turned his periscope to look at the primary gate ring. The slow swirling mix of particles could be seen in front. The green ring began to glow brighter and brighter. Then, the particles began to swirl in formation. It would take some time for the gate formation to be completed. Once again, Veleshar took a deep breath.

Yui’to briefly pulled her hand off the console to reach over and grip Veleshar’s. It was Yui’to’s only firm gesture to her that she was with her in this. Despite any protest she may have had earlier, she was still loyal and would follow this battle to the end. The Greater Adjunct’s hand briefly tightened. It prompted Scott to look at the two. He briefly brought his hand to Veleshar’s arm. This time, the Shal’rein turned her head and smiled at him.

“Thank you...,” Veleshar quietly told him. She pulled her arm back so they could hold hands as well.

Scott could feel the sense of warmth as he kept his other hand on the periscope’s handle. Any sense of apprehension was gone at that point. Veleshar’s thumb caressed the man’s palm. They felt empowered despite the looming battle ahead.

“Three minutes,” Yui’to counted down. Three minutes and the ships would enter into the wormholes into the heart of Aksren territory.

Of course, there was the looming chance of the gates being shut down. Even if they were far from the first line of warships, it was still possible that the Aksren outer patrols would knock out the gates as they were forming. For Scott, he could only hope that if the Aksren does close them, that they do it before the T’rintar fleet enters them.

The three stopped holding hands before monitoring their stations further. Yui’to turned her head to look at Scott.

“Make sure you remember the button for the decoy probe release,” Yui’to said with her voice lowered.

“I know it,” Scott replied. His left pointer finger found a small button. He dared not press it until he was told to push it.

“You sure that the decoys are properly set?” Yui’to asked him.

“More than sure. I double-checked them.”

“Good. When you press the button, the shuttle bay door will open, and jettison one before it closes back up. Keep in mind that when the door is open, it will expose our ship’s underside and briefly expose us. Greater Adjunct, use the decoys wisely.”

Six decoys ... Scott made sure to keep his finger far from that one button. Hard work had been poured into it, becoming almost an all-nighter for him, Gen’wi, and some of the other Itrean engineers. These decoys had to work.

Scott looked over to gain one last perspective of the scene. He could see Bog’Ko’Lif to his left. In the vast distance, he could see four similar swirling vortexes. This had to be the cloaked battleships commanded by Ju. As he turned, he saw the Rampage’s gate probe ring slowly forming. In front of the Gular’shel, the swirling vortex was getting bigger and spinning faster.

Itrean could be heard in the intercom. It was from Siera’lara.

“One of the gates has been shut down,” Yui’to remarked.

“One of ten of the false gates,” Veleshar replied. “We will see how good the Aksren patrols are.”

There was a long pause. More than two minutes had passed. There was more chatter on comms. Siera’lara appeared to be quite busy relaying information to the other T’rintar warships. Darin’s voice could be heard as he was communicating with his fellow bridge crew.

“Another gate has been shut down,” Yui’to reported. “Siera’lara reports that the missile barrage rings are still active.”

“They know something is up,” Veleshar replied. “By now, they’ll think an invasion is to occur.”

The greater adjunct looked down at Scott. “You have your pistol ready?”

“Yes,” Scott replied. “Doubt I have much to worry about in fighting hand-to-hand combat.”

“It should work now,” Yui’to replied. “I helped him.”

“‘Should’ is the keyword. Still get a failure to feed problems every once in a while.”

“If you wanted a heavy caliber, I would have stuck with a revolver. Less capacity, but better reliability.”

“Not always true,” Veleshar replied. “I’ve seen revolvers fail because the owners place too much trust in their abilities. They don’t properly maintain them, and they can break as a result. Higher capacity is the true path. More rounds equal survival. We have a saying in Shal’tar that ‘A fussy gun is the best gun. It teaches you everything you need to know in firearms maintenance.’ It’s good to have it by your side, regardless.”

“True...,” Scott said.

The man looked through the periscope again. There was a brief flash of lightning from the portal as the gate was stable.

“I see the wormhole has fully formed,” the man informed them.

“Wormhole is set,” Yui’to replied. “Ready to jump on your command.”

Once again, the giant maw stood before Scott. The trepidation could be felt. Unlike the days of Gabatrix, the great pioneer only felt the one thing that could set him back. Could he make it back and forth from Mars to Luna?

This time, it was about making a jump from thousands of light years to another. This time, it was about going through a wall of death as the opponents would try to gun you down. This time, it was about ensuring that everyone followed their commands down to complete precision. The longer Veleshar waited, the more likely the Aksren would already have an answer to her actions long before she flew out from the other side.

The swirling vortex stood before him, calling him to enter. There would be no further waiting...

“Go!” Veleshar said in English and Itrean. “Take us to Jikoq speeds.”

“Understood, Greater Adjunct,” Yui’to responded.

Scott tried to take a deep breath but could feel his back pressed to the back of his seat. Flames emitted from the vicinity of space. Invisible warships only had a brief glimmer from their rear engines as the cloaking fields tried to disguise them.

The man could see the wormhole was steady as they closed in. It got bigger and bigger till it filled his entire line of sight.

Then, there was nothing but the void of light. The brief tunnel of particles became a guiding path. Scott could swear that every time he made a jump, he would see more of what it was about. It was a slightly different experience every time, almost as if it was on purpose. His mind tried to make sense of it. On the one hand, it was beautiful, but on the other hand, it was foreboding, perhaps warning its travelers of the dangers of interstellar travel.

And all of it took less than a second...

The scene changed before Scott. Standing before him, in front of the periscope’s vision, was a red planet. It was mostly from the lit side. Renlar was beautiful, reminding Scott of Mars but much bigger. The oceans of blue were stained by gray-lit areas where industry resided. The red sands seemed more aggressive in texture than any planet he had ever seen.

And, there was the great ring.

“I see Renlar ahead,” Scott said.

A brief series of maneuvers were made. The Gular’shel and a series of wormholes could be seen throughout space. The goal was to put as much distance from them as possible before the Aksren could shoot them down or shoot down whatever was coming out of them. From Veleshar’s console, a timer was activated, depicting 14 minutes and counting.

“My God,” the man said as he marked more of the scene. “There’s so much...”

His vision was filled with red dots. There were so many warships that the computer network took several seconds to piece them all together. From his depth of view, the frontline and second line of warships interlapped with one another. It was like looking at a swarm of angry red bees ready to swarm upon a target. Top, bottom, sides, any direction, was impossible to sneak through.

“Anything close to us?” Veleshar asked.

“Checking,” Scott said. “Nothing that I see yet.”

“Greater Adjunct,” Yui’to informed. “Gates are closing. Siera’lara’s missiles are en route to the planet ... Adjunct Ju is en route to the first waypoint. Picking up the Rampage...”

Through one of the closing wormholes far left from the Gular’shel’s entry was the Rampage. The refurbished, cobbled-together warship gleamed as the distant starlight glared at its hull for everyone to see. Its forward-mounted engines activated, causing it to stop. Its forward bow pointed directly towards the ring ahead of it.

Inside the Rampage’s bridge consisted of older electronic computers dating from the early 22nd century. Unlike the newer UHN battleships, consoles lined around the circular station where Captain Darin sat strapped in. A dim red light was the only true source of illumination. There were three large bulkhead displays on the front, left, and right sides. The scent of dust and hard industrial cleaning fluid perforated its insides. At least four crew members sat strapped in their chairs. From their consoles, they could monitor all the events and essential areas of the ship. These other crew members did not wear the UHN uniforms but instead wore their own civilian attire. Each of them seemed to come from various areas of North America. From Darin’s chair, he had an L-shaped console. The controls seemed primitive, consisting of levers, switches, and buttons. However, unlike the other consoles, Darin’s had three, one directly in front and the other two from his right side.

From Darin’s position, a 14-minute counter was displayed that was already counting down. The red LEDs would click on each number, prompting Darin to undo his straps. He stood up, where his magnetic cowboy boots kept him anchored to the metal deck. His 2011 pistol holstered in his side belt.

“Minato,” Darin ordered his navigation officer. “We have less than a minute before we begin the bombardment. Charles, adjust heading and point us at the target specified from Veleshar’s target list. Open a channel to Renlar and the ring.”

“You got it, sir,” Charles replied. Minato tapped a few buttons as the open channel was transmitted in the direction of the planet.

“Empress Itsis,” Darin said stoically, standing from his console. “This is Captain Darin, commander of the Earth Ship Rampage. In the name of mankind, you will power down your fleets and surrender.”

Darin remained adamant and unmoving. Of course, they wouldn’t do it, but to Darin, that wasn’t the point. He waited for ten more seconds, watching the clock count down.

“No?” Darin continued. “I thought so. Only a bitch coward sits behind her building and sends her troops to attack us. This time, I bring the rain to you. You want a piece of me? Then come and get it!”

Darin tapped the button on his console to close out the comms. It was time...

“Charles, fire!” Darin ordered.

The Rampage’s low chin-mounted bow railgun fired. Blue and purple particles rained out as a hypervelocity tungsten shell was launched in the direction of the ring. This was followed by another and another. Three shots total.

“Sir,” Minato’s voice echoed in the bridge. “Aksren warships are heading our way. They’ll be in weapons range in five minutes.”

“Bring us hard to port,” Darin ordered. “Maintain a heading of 3 kph. Charles, I reckon it’s time to show them the might of old steel.”

“Hell yeah, sir,” Charles replied. Darin grabbed ahold of his console as he felt the ship do a hard ninety-degree turn. The Rampage’s rear engines activated for a short time to help propel it in an almost stationary but mobile direction. As the ship was doing its turn, Darin turned his attention to the right display screens.

It took less than ten seconds before the Rampage’s starboard side was pointed directly in the vicinity of Renlar. All the starboard gun turrets, from the four triple-heavy battleship cannons to five-inch deck guns, were all pointed at the ring.

They were in position. Darin lifted his hand and swung it directly ahead of him.

“Give them a broadside!” Darin yelled.

There were a few brief seconds. Then, suddenly, the heavy sixteen-inch gun turrets began to fire. The explosive blast quickly dissipated in space as the large, heated shell was expelled in the direction of the ring. This was followed by multiple rounds from each of the turrets. The five-inch guns were next as they began to fire smaller shells. Meanwhile, the portside engines and vectoring thrusters had activated, keeping the ship stable from the heavy recoil being generated. The sounds of thundering gunfire could be heard from the bridge.

The Rampage was committed to its barrage. The autoloaders were reloading shells at a quick rate. Spent shell casings were plopped out through small portholes from the sides into the emptiness of space. Everything from high explosive, sabot, and nuclear shells was expelled in the direction of Renlar’s ring.

“The Rampage is firing on the ring,” Scott remarked, his periscope swerved to the left. “I spotted the railgun shells, and it looks like it’s firing its ... battleship guns.”

“What about the Aksren fleet?” Veleshar questioned.

“The periscope is telling me ... over a hundred so far have broken off. They’re heading in the direction of the Rampage. No ... make that one hundred and fifty.”

From Scott’s angle, he could see dozens of red, blocky, cylindrical warships. Their engines were glowing red as they began to accelerate towards the lonely Earth battleship.

“How much longer before we reach the first layer of defenses?” Veleshar asked.

“Less than four minutes at our current speed,” Yui’to answered. “Less than seven minutes before we hit the rear fleet.”

“Any sign of our detection?”

“None so far.”

“Status on the battlefield?”

Scott tried to turn to the right with the periscope. He could see the faint green outlines of four cloaked battleships in the vast distance. This was visibly enhanced by the ship’s display as the enemy could not spot their cloak and worked by approximation only. The silhouettes showed a non-ringed cylindrical warship. The T’rintar cloaked battleships almost looked like submarines but carried a large blocky chin to their lower bow. They moved together in two pairs, trying to put some distance between them.

“Adjunct Ju is heading to her first waypoint,” Scott said. “I can’t tell if the Aksren have spotted them or not.”

“They will when they reach the ring of photoflash detectors,” Veleshar said.

“Same with us,” Yui’to added. “I have the approximate locations of the cloaked torpedo volleys. They will reach the first fleet in less than a minute.”

“They’re already falling for it,” the Greater Adjunct remarked. “I was hoping for more, but the Rampage is pulling away some of their forward fleet apart.”

It was true. Scott could see dozens and dozens of red dots separating. It was starting to create a hole in their defenses, but it wasn’t big enough to slip through.

“Greater Adjunct,” Yui’to informed. “We will be passing the Rampage’s railgun rounds in less than a minute.”

Everything was happening according to plan so far. Scott briefly looked at a digital display map in 2D. It showed rows of green arrows, all heading toward Renlar. The wave of red dots from a small section of the sphere of warships was breaking off. The continuous acceleration meant that the warship continued to gain speed. The planet still seemed small on the periscope monitor, but it was getting larger.

The periscope display showed Scott a series of different warships. Many were identified as the classic Italx Class Battleships being of various types, old and new. There were a small number of Durgess class Dreadnoughts serving as lead command ships, but the rest consisted of the revitalized Xetregren Battleships. These warships were slightly different in appearance. It carried two centripetal rotating rings, two-pronged jutting forward bridge sections, dual light railgun, and particle beam turrets in the mid-dorsal and ventral sides, and also had two large boxes strapped to its mid sides. These boxes consisted of numerous scatter-pack missile launchers most likely capable of delivering overwhelming ordinance onto the Gular’shel if detected. These ships were little more than mobile missile platforms capable of delivering death onto a target.

“I spotted one of the missile volleys,” Scott said.

While he wasn’t able to see them directly from his periscope, the cloaked warheads traveled in groups of five. They tried to slip past the outer defense fleet, but one of the stationary defense platforms began to emit a series of light pulses. The illuminating patterns were designed to hit in all directions. Despite the effectiveness of the cloaking device, it was being overwhelmed by these light flashes. Eventually, a small distortion could be seen from their cylindrical bodies as it continued. It was like pointing a flashlight at a group of incoming fighter planes.

“Volley three has been detected,” Yui’to informed.

Within seconds, the photoflash platform’s missile launchers swung and opened fire. One of the nearby battleships began to close in and fire its autoguns, ripping apart the ballistic missiles. Another group of five was right behind it, trying to alter course, but the Aksren were closing in quickly on the detection. They weren’t going to let these warheads get through.

Scott turned to look toward the Earth battleship in the distance.

“The Rampage stopped firing,” the man informed Veleshar. “Looks like Darin’s bugging out.”

“Let’s see if he escapes,” Yui’to replied. “I give him a 20% chance.”

The man could see the old battleship was making a hard turn with its vectoring thrusters. With its nose pointed directly away from Renlar, its rear engines activated. Hot blue flames could be seen as the ship was now engaged in a war of acceleration with its pursuers. It was both good and bad that the Aksren ships would chase him. It was likely that they could catch up to him and destroy his ship. The catch, of course, was whether they would do it. The more and more they went after him, the more they left their main fleet behind.

“Darin has a lot to compete against,” Veleshar explained. “If the Adjuncts were smart, they would place intercepting picket fleets capable of jumping ahead his escape vector. If I were him, I would wait a few days before jumping away.”