Warship’s Mania

As my dear Captain wished, I started with a coilgun salvo. The Fae Matter coated slugs pounded into the Huyiid's lesser sphere of influence leaving streaks of colored light and sparkling ripples as they dug their holes. They failed to reach anywhere near the vessels contained within, breaking up in spectacular fireworks as they met more resistance than they could take. That was how the shielding attribute of a sphere worked, somewhat like the atmosphere pushing against a space craft on re-entry, except here it wasn't just the amount of the projected sphere that pushed back but also the proximity to the source of projection: the contract drive, in other words. Whole fields of mathematics were dedicated to the behaviors of bodies within spheres of influence. These studies performed over the eons had allowed me to guide our mines out of my sphere and the Huyiid to stop my coilgun slugs. To be honest, I wasn't aware of any math, I felt a flowing ribbon of energies that I couldn't touch, but if I put my mental fingers near I could find the moving spots that allowed me to do what I could do, in my own Sphere, and even an enemy's.

With the pits I had dug with my coilgun salvo still fresh and glowing I followed it up with a salvo from my cannons at the same spot. Particle beams did not penetrate as far but bloomed in great shining clouds that made it harder for the shielding to heal properly. Another coilgun salvo, digging deeper into the wound, and then cannons with their blooming shots again. This was the standard attack pattern in use since ancient times to weaken a full strength sphere.

Huyiid's sphere being a composite projected by the contract drive of the Huyiid proper overlapped with it's smaller support vessels made it a tough nut to crack. For a foreign made solution it was very strong, a far cry from the weak mass produced trash I faced in my first battle. The amount of sustained firepower I need to hit the Huyiid's contract drive or even one of its support vessels would be beyond tedious and far too expensive in our time of scarcity, thus the real plan was something else.

My already intermittent salvos kept getting interrupted trying to evade the counterfire, making it harder to deepen the gash. Meanwhile some of their shots hit my own Sphere, most of them at oblique angles that bounced them off into space where they would lose their energy in the system-wide shielding. They probably figured they were doing well and that all the legends about Mezhained Warships were made up to scare enemy fleets into surrendering or fleeing battle. I thought how funny it would be if they really believed that.

In reality this was an exchange of Fae Matter. I got a feel for the composition of their contract drive's strengths and weaknesses, while their sphere got suffused with the witching stuff I was familiar with. Reaching out with fingers that weren't fingers I felt the turbulence, it was no longer even and its borders had gone softer. My salvos had trouble reaching deep if I stuck to one point, so as I moved around the Huyiid in the maintained orbit I simply picked the section I was facing for a new wound. The previous wound would slowly heal. Again, I was more than happy to make them believe they were doing well.

It was just before I would fire away at a fifth spot that Kanmurdi interrupted. "Enemy sphere has reached safe threshold for Sholaidon maneuver."

I looked at Ragni. Her eyes were set straight ahead. "Is she ready, Lennaivu?" she asked the Contract Writer.

"Yes," was all he said. I knew how closely he had monitored my Contract Drive's functioning, how intimate he was with the complexities and flow of the Fae Matter's whims, and how closely entangled I was with it. Right now he had faith in me, and I faith in him.

Upon hearing that simple answer, Ragni opened the intra-Ship communication system she had on standby the whole time and gave the words: "All crew, prepare for superluminal translation into enemy sphere."

She turned to me. "Shishi?"

I beamed. "Yes, Ragni?"

"It's all up to you now. I know you can find the correct timing."

I could feel my heart beat in my chest. How crazy that these people so intricately design a mechanical equivalent of that organ for a being who only knew blood through offerings. "Your trust in me will not be misplaced," I told her. "I am your Ship, after all."

She gave me that smile that was only for me. To me it meant everything. I had her behind me, an entire crew, older sisters, and even an entire civilization. In my Warship's mania I could only do everything for them and truly believe it.

Once again I looked at the projection of the Huyiid Integrated Group, and again through my violet and magenta fire, the sharp of Hekkamuk's spearhead cleaving the image. With my free hands I reached out as if to feel the soft borders of the enemy and where I could storm through.

I heard Ragni give Melusum the orders to prepare a mass missile dispersal upon completion of the superluminal translation. Missile Deck 3 was one of the places where I witnessed the oft trained procedures be put into practice, pacing through the corridors accompanied by Rushimaan's darirom playing in the distance. I spun 90 degrees with my left foot when I caught sight of someone. With quick steps I was behind him in barely two breaths and tugged at his sleeve.

"Ship!" Surprise shook Guruiel's large frame; he had been that focused on his assignment. "What brings you this far from your shrine? Don't tell me something's gone amiss now."

"You're tall," I said. "Share your tallness with me!"

"Hah! I think I know what you mean."

He stooped down low and slung his thickly muscled arm around me to lift me off the ground like I weighed nothing. I settled onto his shoulder, swung a fist in the air and let out a cry of joy.

"I hope you can work like that," Iaram said.

"What kind of enlisted would I be to refuse the Ship's request, Telomme?" The big guy laughed like he usually did. "Not one she would want to keep around, right?"

"You'll be lucky if Zhoromek doesn't show up."

Derdugemmel, an old hand who before serving me served my sister Ran gave his opinion. "Guruiel shouldn't be bothered by carrying her Radiance's avatar around. He's got enough room for you on his other shoulder, if you'd like." Laughter erupted from the other enlisted who heard.

"Nah, he'd better keep one shoulder free," Iaram said, not without some pique.

"So that's a 'no' then?"

More laughter.

Iaram looked gravely in Derdugemmel's direction. "Why don't you go up there? We're about the same size, aren't we? I'm only a few fingers taller."

Low sounds from the group. She got him good.

My turn. "Who cares? You're both far too tall! This is a privilege for those who are cute and little and I don't think any of you will object when I say I'm the cutest and littlest of all here!"

"That's all offset by your Greater Self, your Radiance," Udognimer said, pointing her finger all around to illustrate. "There's none larger than you here."

"Hush! You know full well opposites can be equally true. In the end I'm still a charming little girl. And this charming little girl will soon pelt her enemies with missiles!" I pointed upwards in the direction of the Huyiid. "Enlisted and midshipmen alike, get ready to learn what your work here is good for!"

A crowd greater than I at first figured erupted into laughter and cheering, spreading an infectious wave across the whole deck. Had I just given them a morale boost? It was almost like a buff from a game. I kept looking up at where my hand pointed, fingers now spread out. Yes, this would definitely make me fight harder for them.

With the back right hand of my prime avatar on the command deck I made the same gesture, though not pointed at the ceiling but the holographic Huyiid instead and hovering a steady distance from Hekkamuk's shaft. It was as if I lightly touched its entire being, feeling for the softest, most permeable borders. With how disturbed and uneven it was I would soon find the perfect spot to plunge into.

And there it was. A great softborderedness that I could break through. Not hitting it with a flat hand spread over the surface, but pointed at it to glide into it. My back right hand slowly moved over Hekkamuk towards the flame. It blazed a vibrant violet and magenta as I thrust it forward into the hologram of the Huyiid. At the same time my hands that weren't holding or guiding Hekkamuk pulled backwards, fingers like hooks as if I dragged the Huyiid forward at the same time as I jumped towards it. Was it really both? Who knew with the mysteries that laid beyond spacetime.

Since the translation lasted less than the blink of an eye, the blurring of the universe was over before I could even properly enjoy the feeling of beating light to the finish line. If I had to describe it, there was the sensation of hitting water like a high diver slipping in, fingertips first. And then my fingertips hit another surface.

Very quickly the blurred image became focused and clear: the Huyiid itself was obvious, but between me and it lay one of its support vessels. My forceful entry into the Integrated Group's combined sphere of influence had left massive disturbances rippling across it. In fact, I managed to get in so deep that I temporarily separated the combined sphere from the sphere of the support vessel in front of me. Like the combined sphere, it was massively weakened by disturbances and though smaller, it had trouble healing itself as a section of my proper Sphere of Influence intersected and superseded it. I could feel the damaged spheres turning against me, trying to push me out like I was a foreign object. Which I suppose I was.

Right then I released the missiles that had been waiting patiently. Passing the border of my Sphere they gave me a flurry of goodbyes and assumed their erratic courses, designed to confuse whatever countermeasures the massive vessel and its followers had. Some of them dove right into the support vessel's sphere.

There was a massively one-sided struggle there as the lesser sphere tried to assert itself, pushing into the border of my own Sphere and causing a turbulence right at the edge. In this turbulence I could sense more directly the strengths and weaknesses of the other contract drive's song: it was uncomplicated and lacked presence, but I could hear the faint whispers of my own song deposited by the Fae Matter laced salvos from the previous phase. I trained all my senses on the support vessel.

It was such a ripe target.