Star Conqueror: An Epic Space Adventure Read online

  “Is that the Left Hand’s ship?” Turner asked, his eyes as big as saucers even as his fingers never stopped working at the engineering controls.

  His sudden case of nerves was understandable. The Left Hand of the High Priestess was the third in command of the entire Matriarchy, a frighteningly powerful woman that I only ever saw from a distance in-game. Strangely, despite the content of the last mission, I never wound up fighting her, so the truth of her identity and magical power was a big unknown to me, despite rampant speculation on the Star Conqueror message boards.

  “I don’t care if it’s the High Priestess’s ship, we’re jumping as soon as you get the drives back online,” Tulip growled before smacking the screen in frustration. “It couldn’t have been a scout or something simple. It had to be a Tierra class! How the hell did they get here so quick?”

  “Don’t worry, guys,” I called out, putting on my best superior officer voice. “You’ve fought through worse, I know you have, so let’s focus. Get us a course they won’t expect, Tulip, and give me those drives, Turner.”

  Any worry I had that I might have overstepped my bounds with the pair disappeared the moment Turner flashed me a big thumbs-up and Tulip smiled sidelong at me. “You’re right, David. Thank you for the faith.” She focused on her controls and my own captain’s window updated with her new navigation path for our hopefully very soon next jump.

  Being the only one without a critical job at that moment, I was the only one who saw the Incoming Hail signal on my screens. “She’s hailing us for some reason,” I called out.

  “Good, stall her,” Turner shouted as he worked his magic, our hyper-spatial field slowly coming back into proper focus. “Use some of that Earther fast-talking I have seen in your famous action cinema!”

  “Me?” I pointed at my chest just to make sure there was no confusion as to who me was.

  “Yes, you,” Tulip chimed in as she worked feverishly to finalize a new hyper-drive route. It apparently was a hell of a lot harder to do in the real world than the game. “Turner and I can work while you talk. You can do it!” Now, she was the one with reassuring me, and it worked.

  They needed me, and I wanted to help. The communication system looked identical to the one in-game, so I pressed the button to respond to the hail.

  A comms window opened on my screen, dominated by an alien woman. Light, grayish skin like soft marble accented her perfectly heavenly visage and a pair of large, white, feathered wings stretched out past her back and out of the screen’s view. Most humans would mistake her as some sort of angel, but I knew better. This was a Matriarch, and she was pure evil. Her blue eyes seemed to glow, and I couldn’t help but stare at her like an exotic zoo exhibit. Her camera angle, like mine, left little else visible on the screen.

  Something snapped in me as I took her in. Heat swelled from the pit of my stomach, an inner flame that rose and raged at the sight of this alien figure with perfect teeth and unnatural blue eyes. I had no idea what this burning heat was as it tried to rise up in my throat, stoking up a fiery anger to go along with it. Struggling to keep it down, I could feel the sweat beading on my brow as it abated … for the moment.

  What the fuck was that?

  “I am Inquisitor Alyra,” the Matriarch announced, her voice surprisingly soft as she gestured grandly, never once meeting our eyes directly, “Left Hand of the High Priestess, Grand Starshaper, Wielder of the Golden Light of Thar’zoul. You will release your ship’s controls to us.”

  I growled, an undercurrent of anger still flowing, my hands curling into fists at her outrageous demands. Any thought of glib wordplay from an action movie was going right out the window.

  “Do you understand what I’m saying?” Alyra pressed, her voice rising in annoyance. “You have five seconds to comply.” Even as annoyed as she seemed to be, that was all it was, like we were a fly in her soup. She let out a slight yawn as she looked off camera, arrogant in her superiority to us non-Matriarchs.

  The arrogance brought the fire back ten-fold, pushing the rage back up to the forefront of my mind. Anger grabbed me from inside out and I felt something try to press its way out of my body, changing it from the inside out.

  Golden claws, just like those of my dragon form in-game, started to peek out of my fingertips before retracting, and as I looked down at them, I licked the insides of my mouth, tasting the same sweet, oily substance from my encounter with Phil. All in all, the shift back and forth had taken less than a second, but that little taste was enough to make me feel powerful in a way I couldn’t quite explain. There was a brief moment of surprise mixed with the endorphin rush of all that power. Any thought about this dragon thing not being real was purged from my system. Sure, maybe I should have worried about that, but I had so much adrenaline coursing through me that I just didn’t care.

  Not when I had this bitch staring me down like I was less than a worm, anyway.

  “I do not comply,” I growled, fixing the Inquisitor with a glare. “And you’d best leave us alone. I’d hate to have to kill you.”

  As I met her eyes, I took in the fear behind them, an existential panic that probably drowned out every word I said. In that panic, she turned to off-camera and gestured frantically, her shrieks of fear much different than her soft speaking voice. “Captain, fire everything you’ve got at that ship now!”

  “Guys! I think I made her piss her pants and now she’s going psycho!” I shouted. “We need to move and now!”

  “I’m on it,” Tulip cried, her fingers never stopping their rapid motion. “Hyper-drive route punched in and initiating evasive maneuvers!”

  The screen went black as the Left Hand cut channels, even as multiple alerts flashed across my screen, showing weapons systems on the Tierra charging as the two frigates moved to cut off our escape.

  “They’re firing on us, as if that’s some big news,” Turner snarked as his fingers flew to another window on his controls. “Launching counter measures!”

  I instinctively moved to my screen and saw those same firing controls pop up for me as well. “Turner, I can handle this. You finish those calculations for the jump!”

  “You got it, David,” the Bolderian said, utter confidence on his face as he pulled up the engineering window again. “We just need to buy twenty seconds, tops!”

  The estimated time for the first missile’s impact was ten seconds thanks to Tulip’s brilliant maneuvers. It was more than enough time for me to bring up our counter ballistics, a series of small rail gun turrets mounted along the triangular hull of the Orion. High speed projectiles burst from our rail guns and slammed into the first barrage of incoming missiles, blowing them to kingdom come.

  As the last missile exploded, I glanced out the port viewscreen, the one facing the small fleet. All three Matriarch ships were turning so they could launch every weapon they had at us in a vicious broadside. That was fine though. I’d dealt with worse odds when I did the Arcadian Moon Run back in Star Conqueror.

  A smile crossed my lips. I’d beaten that fight by exploiting a maneuverability issue on the Matriarch targeting scheme. Maybe that would work here too.

  Taking a deep breath, I focused on the controls, feeling my mind go to that deep place it always did when I entered the game. My hands flew across the controls, so familiar, it was like coming home. “Tulip, Turner, I’ve got a plan. I’m taking over some nav and engineering functions, but don’t worry. I’ve got this.”

  Tulip nodded eagerly, even as she sent the Orion in another twisting spiral to avoid a barrage of plasma bolts, while Turner just gave me his big thumbs-up.

  With a grin at their show of support, I brought up our fuel cells, and dialed them to maximum, but instead of driving the power to our engines, I pushed the power to our aft rail guns. It was a little-known fact that Matriarch ships prioritized incoming ordinance based on speed. I wasn’t sure why that was, but they did. Well, I was about to make this mother fly.

  I hit the fire button while swinging our ship up in a
tight arc that sent a wave of steel lancing between the rightmost frigate and the Left Hand’s ship before coming down on her right. More projectiles cut through the air between the left ship and the battleship, and just like in the game, their targeting locked onto the projectiles, drawing their weapon systems to track the rail gun bursts instead of our ship, buying us much needed time.

  “Does this thing have Gamma bombs?” I asked, glancing at Turner who was staring at me in open mouthed shock.

  “How did you …?”

  “Turner, Gamma bombs?” I said, cutting him off and he blinked.

  “Yeah, it does.” He nodded at me. “But those have to be dropped manually.” His eyes went wide. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Turner, I’m deadly serious,” I said, and when he started to object, I smiled at him. “What would John McClane do?”

  That got him on board.

  “He’d kick some Matriarch ass!” Turner nodded. “The last calculations are child’s play, so I’m shunting them to you, Tulip.” He hopped to his feet, turning toward the open door to the rest of the ship. “Give me two shakes, and I’ll be in position to drop them.”

  “Good.” I took a deep breath as I turned my attention back to the enemy craft. My maneuver had caused them to turn completely away as their targeting locked onto the projectiles and blasted them out of the air, but that was over now. They were already spinning back toward us, but I didn’t care.

  Dropping the extra power from the rail guns, I pushed it into our engines. We rocketed toward them while I thumbed open the communications array and sent out a broad-spectrum comm.

  “Hey, bitches. Ready to play chicken?”

  “Cat god’s tail, what are you doing?” Tulip asked, glancing up at me. “We’re trying to get away from them.”

  “Yeah, but that’s no fun.” I smiled at her, thumbing off our shields, weapon systems, and pretty much everything as I poured every last ounce of energy into the engines. “You may not know this, but we Marines don’t run away. We just kick ass and take names. Oorah!”

  It was strange. For a second, I thought Tulip was going to argue or tell me I was an idiot, but instead, she just nodded. “You won in Star Conqueror, you’ll win here. I trust you.” Then she went back to her work, finishing up the hyper-drive calibration Turner had left for her.

  I smiled. I couldn’t help it. This badass freedom fighter believed in me, and I wasn’t going to let her down.

  The Left Hand’s ship was nearly dead on with us and closing fast. I could see the beam weapons on her ship flaring, letting me know I had at most six seconds until they turned our ship into slag. It was a good thing I only needed two.

  Pressing down the comm button, I signaled Turner.

  “I’m here, David. Got three loaded.” He took a breath. “We only have four total so …”

  “That’s plenty, Turner. Set the explosion distance for six hundred meters.”

  “Done.”

  “Great. On my mark, drop the first bomb. Wait a breath, then drop the second with the same specs. I’ll let you know when to do bomb three. Probably want four loaded too.” I stared down the ship ahead and smiled. She was reacting, turning to follow with her plasma weapons and particle cannons because it would be stupid to use missiles at this distance. Fortunately, I was just that kind of stupid.

  “Mark!” I shouted.

  As the word left my mouth the first bomb fell, and as it did, I dropped into a dive toward it. The huge metal cylinder flared as the surge drive on the top came to life, propelling it down. Right as the bomb reached four hundred meters, I jerked hard on the virtual control stick, pulling the nose of the ship out of the dive and bringing it straight up as I diverted all our power from acceleration to shielding.

  Overhead, the Tierra was moving to follow us, its front coming down so it could reorient its weapons, and that was when the Gamma bomb exploded. The force ripped out, hitting our turning ship and flipping us upside down. The sensors went insane as the shockwave of the bomb flung us upward far quicker than I could ever have managed, and thanks to my positioning, we zoomed right up toward the underside of the Matriarchy ship. The ship that wouldn’t have been in position if it hadn’t tried to blow us up.

  That was when the second Gamma bomb ejected. Only it didn’t need to go the six hundred meters because the underside of the Left Hand’s massive battleship was only four hundred away.

  The bomb slammed into the underside of her hull and exploded like a fucking nuclear bomb. The force pitched us downward as the entire blast site started to crater, the force so immense, it actually pushed her ship upward even as she moved forward, exposing more of her tender hull.

  “Turner, launch the third bomb, wait a breath, and launch four.”

  “Affirmative.” An eyeblink later, bomb three was flying away, and while we weren’t as close as before, there was still no way for the Left Hand to avoid it.

  See, that was the thing with Gamma bombs. They kind of went in the direction you fired and that was it. They didn’t track, didn’t follow targets. They were just a big badda bang, which was why no one used them. Unguided weapons in the three-dimensional dance of space combat, especially with so many gravitational forces involved, was stupid, at least on paper.

  Well, as the third and then fourth bombs slammed into the underside of the ship, practically cracking it in half, I smiled. That was why. That right there was fucking why.

  “Holy shit, David,” Turner cried through the comms. “You just crippled her ship.”

  “I did, didn’t I?” I said as more sensors lit up, letting me know the two smaller escorts had locked onto us. “Now, we just have to deal with these assholes.”

  “Got it!” Tulip said in triumph as she smacked her hand down on the controls. “These assholes can fuck off.”

  My screen popped to life with Alyra’s angry face on it. The Left Hand must have hacked into our comms, and part of me was glad they had because the look of rage on her face was fucking priceless. “We will hunt you down, no matter where you go!” she roared. “This is not the end. I will feast on your entrails.”

  Before she could say another word, the hyper drive engines roared to life and we jumped.

  5

  “I can’t believe we got away clean.” Tulip absently rubbed her right ear as we all gathered again on the bridge. That was something new. She had never rubbed her ear in game, and I enjoyed seeing that little nervous tic. The in-game Tulip never did anything like that, but she also never did anything that wasn’t in her extensive but limited animation cycles. This was unique. This was real. Despite the tension of the situation, I took a moment to marvel at the fact I was standing next to the real Tulip.

  “What are you staring at?” she said, lowering her hand.

  “I’m just so happy you’re real,” I said, smirking at her.

  “What about me?” Turner jerked a thumb at his chest. “Are you happy to see me too?”

  “Yeah, I love you too, Turner. Nice job with those bombs by the way.” I smiled at him. “You’re a real maestro at picking up heavy objects and putting them into holes.”

  “Nice.” Turner flashed me a wink and a smile. “Now, I must go and check to see if all that crazy shit you did fucked anything up.” He got up and walked off the bridge, carrying his tablet from the engineering station.

  Turner’s attitude nor his affinity for movies were in the game either, but I liked both as much as I liked all I was discovering about the real Tulip. Hell, I don’t think he’d spoken more than a hundred words in-game, mostly just quips about blowing stuff up and kicking ass.

  Speaking of change, I felt one in me as well. Something deep in me was growing, a powerful thing. The heat I had felt when I first saw Alyra on-screen was still there, and it was now a steady, burning heat. I glanced down at my hands, expecting to see those golden talons peeking out again. Only my hands seemed normal now as I looked them up and down. What had triggered that power, and now that I knew it was real, how cou
ld I harness it when I needed it?

  It wasn’t like I had a UI button to hit to change forms like in Star Conqueror.

  “Are you doing okay?” Tulip asked, coming over to me, but her idea of personal space was far different from my own, and I soon felt her body pressed against mine as she looked over my shoulder to see what I was staring at. It felt good, soothing, as she started to purr against me.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, managing to smile even as I still looked at my hands. “Just wondering about this whole dragon thing. You know, how it’s gonna work.”

  “It is gonna hurt so much your head will explode.” She stepped around me and took my hands in hers. Then she burst out laughing. “Oh, David, I’m just kidding. Wow, you should have seen your face.” She sucked in a breath as she put her forehead against my chest. When she recovered a few seconds later, she looked up at me, but her face still had that Cheshire cat grin. “David, you’re the most powerful creature in existence. When you change, it’s going to be awesome.”

  “Part of me can’t wait,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Both you and the Matriarch seemed to think I was a dragon, so I believe you …” I waved my hands by way of example. “I still feel normal though.”

  “David, you’re far from normal.” She pulled my hand, leading me toward the door at the back of the bridge. “Come with me, I have something to show you.”

  “Is the ship okay, you know, without us in here?” I gestured toward the bridge.

  “It’s in the hands of the gods now and Turner. There’s nothing you and I can really do in hyperspace but wait.”

  “Fair enough.” With those words, I followed her through a good portion of the ship, from hall to hall and across various rooms. There were crew quarters, a dining hall, a kitchen, and even what had to be a bar with hanging glasses and colorful bottles on display. Some of this was new to me, as Star Conqueror kept most of its social aspects to hub worlds. The amount of ship customization and layout wasn’t as much as some folks in the Star Con community wanted. Now, though, I guess that didn’t really matter to me. I was in the real deal.