"341". Part 2

Five weeks have passed since the publication of the first part, and I tore my own deadline (I wanted to meet a week earlier). You can make excuses as much as you like, but better next time I’ll try to keep fit faster.

In the second part, a parallel storyline begins on behalf of Una's younger brother, Kyle. The part turned out to be completely independent and therefore it is not particularly important whether you read the previous one or not. At the end of the post, a small announcement of the next part. Enjoy reading!

Chapter 2. Kyle

05/09/21

"Do not do anything stupid.", - Kyle sent the last sentence and interrupted the communication session. He just wanted to hear her voice and pass a little time, but the news seriously bothered him. More and more rumors hovered over the Syndicate, and many of them came from trusted sources.

He attended the next military meeting, the second of the day. Captains of the fleet, led by an elderly admiral, gathered at a huge table. They were faced with the task of destroying the rebel fleet and, if possible, taking the "Apostle", who was at the head, alive.

Kyle was not comfortable among the military personnel, and he again regretted that the executioners were not wearing uniforms. In any case, the meeting did not solve anything, before he started, he managed to talk with the Boss, and she promised to send “special” help to them.

All the attention of the audience was directed to a young communications officer standing by the map. He reported the latest data just received from intelligence.

- The rebel fleet has 23 battleships, 42 support cruisers and about 200 fighters. They all stand in the raid on the planet Calle. Intelligence could not determine on which of the ships the Apostle was stationed.

- What about reinforcements? Asked one of the captains.

- The 3rd fleet was sent to us from the inner ring, but they will arrive only after 6 hours. - reported the communications officer. Besides ...

Kyle interrupted the speaker's speech, depicting the most serious tone possible.
“We cannot wait so much time; the Apostle can leave the system at any moment.”

It would seem strange to an outside observer that a civilian was interrupting an officer, but he, as an executioner during execution, had every right to intercept the leadership of the operation at any time.

- Too dangerous! I can’t give the order for the offensive. - objected an elderly man in an admiral's tunic. It was strange to watch a balding old man in such a high position. Any citizen of the Empire could extend his youth at minimal cost, and he could not understand why the admiral did not want to take advantage of the achievements of Imperial medicine.

In response, Admiral Kyle posted his trump card:
“And if I say that Chimera will join us any minute?” - The hall exploded at the mere mention of her. Most of those present were delighted, but there were those who were afraid that she would take all the laurels to herself. Only the admiral remained calm.

"Chimera" showed itself only a year ago, but during this time managed to participate in almost all the hottest battles. And earned a reputation as the strongest executioner.

A radio operator flew into the room.
“Sir, a ship has appeared at the base.” - he reported.

- Whose ship? And how the hell did you miss him ?!

“Imperial dreadnought class Eon, Chimera, sir!” - and, as if making excuses, continued. “He appeared out of nowhere, we could not detect his way out of the warp.”

“They are asking for permission to board,” the communications officer saved the radio operator.

“I permit, prepare a second docking compartment,” the admiral ordered.

A deafening electric crackling swept through the room and the air smelled of ozone. The girl materialized in front of the signalman. Her red hair was gathered in a long tail, in other matters, they have darkened since their last meeting, and the former shine has disappeared from her eyes. Only the whiteness of the skin remained unchanged. Of the clothes on it were only: a simple white T-shirt, spacious black pants, and boots made of artificial leather. Now she would have gone for the junior technician from the engineering deck, and only a black identification bracelet on her left hand betrayed her high position.

Despite all the changes, Kyle recognized her and tried to call:
- Lily ?!

But she only looked at him and immediately frowned.

“I was told that you need help,” her voice was full of ice. “Well, get off home, because you cannot cope with the Apostle.”

And then she glanced contemptuously at Kyle and disappeared before anyone could react.

The first admiral came to his senses:
- Who will tell me what it was?

“We were made clear that we were free,” Kyle answered him. He himself was already heading for the exit.

* * *

Kyle sat at the Borea main console and watched the Chimera sink into the warp. Its smooth lines gradually dissolved in the blue haze of the warp field.

The ships of the "Eon" class were a cross between a dreadnought and a carrier ship, and as a result a flawed dreadnought or flawed carrier was obtained. They gained a terrible reputation in the fleet, and for all the time only four such ships were built, not counting the Chimera itself. The Chimera itself, in the past, bore the name "Star" and was the flagship of the Imperial Navy. It was distinguished by a slightly modified design and increased dimensions.

On the one hand, it did not bother him to immediately go to Eris and help Una, but he could not get rid of her gaze.

He undocked from the base of the fleet and, having flown off to a safe distance, went to the warp after the Chimera. The ship shuddered, and the blackness of space was replaced by a multi-colored haze of warp. The trace left by the huge dreadnought was clearly visible, but towards the end the trace abruptly broke, and he had to continue on his own to the Calle system.

The Northwind emerged from the warp — and no one. The rebel fleet, as expected, lay in the orbit of the planet Calle, but not a single trace of the Chimera. He was left alone against the whole fleet. A dozen cruisers rushed to him to intercept. Kyle turned the ship around and tried to get away from them, but the cruisers had a significant speed advantage, and they gradually caught up with him.

The silence was broken by a familiar cold voice:
- Follow the plan.

- What plan?

“To what you proposed to the admiral in the morning,” she specified the order.

“How did she find out about the plan?”, But now it was not important, and he flew to the moon. According to the plan, the Imperial fleet was supposed to be located there, and its task was to lure enemies to them. She must have disappeared behind the moon, which was possible if almost all the equipment and sensors on the ship were turned off. It is more difficult to hide the way out of the warp, but she has already shown that she is capable of this, having alarmed everyone at the base with her sudden appearance.

Enemy ships, like vultures, were all approaching, and now the nearest of them had already entered the zone of destruction of the guns. The cruiser has an advantage in speed, but the battleship has protection and armament.

Kyle fired, aiming at the sharp nose of the nearest ship, but his 100mm particle accelerator left only a small scratch on the enemy’s hull, the shield absorbed most of the energy.

“Aim at the dark ledge above the nose,” the same cold voice commented on his shot.

Kyle enlarged the image of the cruiser, and saw a small ledge in the armor on which an array of sensors was located. He shot him from the second gun, and the result exceeded all expectations! Something swelled in the ship, and then it was torn to pieces.

“Defects in the power circuit,” Lily still calmly clarified what had happened.

Kyle could only envy her peace of mind, nine enemy vultures continued to chase him. He was distracted by a system message: "Data download is complete!". The ships of the pursuers were painted with colored spots, indicating vulnerabilities.

“Are their ships in such a terrible state?”

“Your ship is not better,” she snapped, making it clear that she did not want to continue the conversation.

"Borey" was not intended to escape, only two of his guns could work on the rear hemisphere. Kyle turned the ship right side to the enemies to fire a volley of airborne guns. The enemy counterattacked, but the shells of their rail guns stopped, colliding with the Borea kinetic barrier. The shield indicator has almost halved. Kyle transferred most of the energy from the engines to the shields and fired a volley of six airborne particle accelerators, distributing them to the vulnerabilities of three enemies. Two ships turned into fireballs, but the third was able to dodge at the last moment and avoided serious damage.

The particle accelerator is a hybrid of a laser and a railgun. When fired, it emits a stream of heavy charged particles dispersed to 1/10 of the speed of light. The particles are small enough and the kinetic barrier simply ignored most of them. With all the advantages, the particle accelerator has one significant drawback: the particles quickly lose energy and become ineffective at large distances.

Without waiting for reloading, Kyle abruptly turned and framed the port side. A new salvo illuminated the battlefield, this time all three targets were destroyed. The remaining cruisers came too close and were already circling around him like real vultures. The Borea turrets did not keep pace with their movements, and they, in turn, generously sprinkled it with steel bars. The shield was melting before our eyes. Enemies were too fast and he could only wait for the right moment when they themselves fly under the gun.

When only 10% of the shield remained, one of the vultures became completely insolent and, forgetting caution, flew under the gun’s barrel, for which he paid for a board torn to shreds, but now there was no need to even count on repeating the error.

“Use the jerk,” her voice sounded again, but this time there were notes of uneasiness in it.

“You know, I can’t,” he admitted.

But she prepared for this:
- I’ve calculated everything, direct the ship to the center of the moon and turn on the warp drive exactly 340 milliseconds.

They called the warp transition over short distances a jerk, but he still could not master it.
Kyle trusted her and turned on the warp drive. His ship plunged into the warp for a moment. When he emerged, it was separated from the pursuers by 500 kilometers, this was just enough for a U-turn and one single salvo. The Northwind is not designed to retreat; its full potential opens when it is deployed with its nose to the enemy.

The three remaining opponents lined up with a wedge and approached him. At their head was a ship with two parallel potholes on the bow remaining after the first salvo. Kyle overloaded the gun collectors. He aimed four front guns at the leader, and airborne guns at those walking on either side of him. The guns of the battleship spewed bright white rays, lining up in a perfectly symmetrical figure with nodes at the points where the enemies flew a second ago. The cruisers did not have a single chance to survive such an attack.

Kyle checked the sensors. No one was chasing him anymore, it seemed that the rebels were absolutely not worried about the death of their comrades, and they continued to rev up the planet. Then he noticed how a huge dreadnought slowly crawled out from behind the moon. He mistook it for the Chimera, but the on-board computer identified it as the Banshee and painted its marker red. The main guns of the dreadnought turned in his direction and accumulated a charge for a shot.

- You can relax, then I'll figure it out myself.

Everything around was blurred, and then his ship was suddenly surrounded by metal walls, only in front of the stars could be seen through a round hole. Landing grabs gripped the ship. He was inside the hangar, "Chimera" came out of the warp directly at him.
This was too much, the slightest deviation, and they would both perish.

“What are you doing, do you want to kill us ?!”

“I could have praised it, after all!” - it seemed to him that she was standing somewhere nearby and yelling at him. - And besides, I had a margin of half a meter.

“Ice and Fire” - this phrase was best suited to describe her character. Kyle was afraid to admit, but he liked this trait in her, and he even sometimes specially provoked it.

“Sorry, sometimes I forget what you're capable of,” he apologized.

“You could have kept silent, you know how I feel about apologies.”

“Sorry,” he repeated automatically.

- You're incorrigible.

A small skirmish reminded him of the times before that ill-fated night, of the times when they were together.

He asked a question that had worried him lately:
“Why did you avoid me?”

“You made it clear to me that you did not want to continue talking,” he thought, sobbing. “I have a fight in full swing, let me finish, and then you can offend me as much as you like.”

She opened full access to her neural interface, and he saw the world through her eyes. He was stunned by the huge flow of information, it seemed she was following everything, down to the temperature of the case. Having become accustomed, he was able to discern the silhouette of the Chimera. Her dark bronze case, he remembered well. To her left was the Banshee, in comparison with the Chimera it no longer seemed huge, and looking better, he realized that the Banshee had already lost the battle. Its starboard side melted from numerous hits, and through holes gaped at the site of the main guns. The power of the Chimera frightened him, and at the same time pleased that she was on his side.

And to the starboard side were already flying numerous enemy points, the very ones that still remained on the planet. Apparently they until the last hoped that the Banshee would deal with him.

Lily, instead of shooting at them, directed all the energy into the shield. The blue sphere vibrated around them from overload and it seemed that it was about to break. The fleet fired, but the shield indicator didn’t even move. She waited a little longer and dropped her shield. All the accumulated energy in a wave flew into the enemies. Those who survived the wave, she finished off with her many tools. Her black rays literally burned through and through. The battle was over before it started.

“I said that I could handle it,” after the victory, she was in high spirits.

“It is amazing how you were able to deal with Banshee so quickly.”

- Hima herself neutralized her. We can watch the replay, I still have a record. Waiting for you on the bridge.

- Well, only I have two questions: who is Hima and where is the bridge?

“Exactly, you have never been here,” she was annoyed. - As you get out, turn right, walk past a white ship and after it there will be an elevator on the left, take it to the very top. And I call Him the mind of the ship.

Going out into the hangar through the airlock door aboard the ship, Kyle found himself in a spacious hangar capable of sheltering at least three battleships. He drew attention to the very white ship she mentioned. Half the size of Borea, it was more like a missile warhead. Round in cross section, the sharp nose gradually expanded to the middle, and then narrowed. According to the location of the gun turrets, he carried the ship to a large sabotage cruiser. Nine guns were distributed in three zones. The first is in front, the second is in the widest part and the third is at the end. But the size of the guns is too large, according to his estimates, 200 mm came out. It turned out that this was no longer a cruiser, but a small battleship, but most of all he was surprised by something else.

- Since when have WI ships been built?

- This is our firstborn.

- Exactly, Una once told me that you work for WI.

- Do you work? I created the Warp Initiative.

The silence was broken by the sound of the elevator. The door opened and she stepped out of the booth.

- Well, hello Kyle. Long time no see.