Open Fire

Dustin met Yril’k’s nervous glance with a confident smile. The pair were alone on the bridge as they dropped out of the weave and into the insect woman’s first real test as the one in charge of Sola’s excessive amount of firepower - at her request, as she wanted to face this challenge with the minimum of spectators, something Dustin and the others had been happy to agree to. He was present purely as captain and just on the off chance something went awry; if the asteroid turned out to be some kind of secret alien invasion pod, he was the only one that could give the command to fire the really big gun after all.

Their discussions about Sola and Meli’s findings had gone on for most of the past few days - indeed, just prior to the countdown to weave-disconnect Yril’k had been going over her own theory about the matter with him - the idea that the insectoids had developed an alternative method of accessing the weave that had catastrophically failed, causing the collapse of their society but catapulting some of it’s members to another habitable world that allowed them to rebuild. Personally, he didn’t think it likely - the number of individuals he felt were needed to sustain a population was just too high, but he did have to acknowledge that if any species could repopulate successfully from a handful of members it would be an insectoid one.

Everyone seemed to have a pet theory about the matter, despite Meli stressing that it was only a probable match rather than a guaranteed one between the attacker and the extinct race. Everyone that is except Dustin himself; as Yril’k ran through some initial scans to allow her to adjust her firing plans for their bombardment of the asteroid he pondered that fact. He genuinely didn’t have any great concerns about who had attacked him and Rye on that outpost - rather, his concerns were focused on the dire predictions of the overqueen of the Vex’ess that a storm was coming, and the complete lack of interest in the reports that he had sent to the galactic council about strange technology and hostile alien attacks.

“Captain’k. I believe I am ready if you would like to view the plans’k.” Yril’k’s soft voice brought him back to the present, and he glanced back over at the former handmaiden. “What? Ah, yes, please bring them up security officer.” The Vex’ess woman nodded, tapping her console gingerly with one finger; there had been a situation when she’d gotten over eager a couple of days prior and had used one of her bladed arms without thinking. Dustin hid a smile as he thought back on that incident - Rye had the neatly cut screen hanging from one wall in her bunk room; he was pretty sure the Rabyth was working on a way to Yril’k-proof all the consoles so their security chief could use all of her arms, sharp-weapon-tipped or not.

The main vidscreen flickered in response to Yril’k’s gesture, first highlighting the asteroid and planet in red and green respectively, then plotting a dotted white curve ahead of the ship. From this curve, a series of blue dashed lines emerged, cutting neatly around the red blob of the asteroid before the white curve coiled in on itself to head towards one of the moons of a gas giant nearby. Dustin raised an eyebrow and gestured at the plan. “The firing solution I can understand - looks simple enough. Why the trip to the moon?”

The warrior glanced down for a moment before she replied. “I was unable to find a solution’k that would fully manage to either safely scatter the debris throughout the system’k or guarantee it burned up in the atmosphere of the colony world’k. Thus, I opted for one that minimized’k the risks - this one will split’k approximately forty percent of mass to the moon’k. The moon has a thick atmosphere’k so will cause the mass to burn up on entry’k. The remaining sixty percent will cause meteor showers’k harmlessly on the colony in a year’s time’k. As to why we are going there’k…”

She paused for a moment, then nodded to herself. “It was a request by the senior staff’k. They wish to see the meteor shower’k and we cannot wait a year for the ones on the colony’k.” Dustin sighed. “The others put you up to it in other words. Fine. To be honest, we’ve all been so stressed after going over that weird alien stuff so sitting watching fire fall from the sky sounds like fun. I presume Sola won’t have any issues with the atmospheric content?” The AI’s voice chimed in that while thick the atmosphere was largely non-corrosive and she would be fine as long as they didn’t stay there for months.

“Alright then. Well, firing solution accepted. You may take us in and fire when ready.” Dustin said after considering the matter for a moment longer. Yril’k nodded, once again carefully tapping at her console as Sola locked in on the predetermined flight path. “ETA to first firing’k one hour and thirty seven minutes captain’k. If you wish to attend to other matters’k.” The insect woman said, her eyes locked on the terminal. Given it seemed certain that she wouldn’t be leaving her post until the guns went silent, Dustin opted instead to stay with her - not talking, as when he tried she rapidly shut down conversation to return to her vigil over her calculations. He did however manage to get her to eat a snack and have a drink from the bridge automat, even if he had to hand deliver them to her station.

As the first rounds left Sola’s weaponry exactly ninety seven minutes later just as the Vex’ess had stated, Dustin saw her shoulders sag with relief. “You really don’t need to worry so much Yril’k. I have faith in you, like I do all of my crew; even if something went wrong, we’re all here to fix it and learn for next time - and I know you’re capable when it comes to weaponry, even when you didn’t have…” he paused, trying to find the right words before concluding with all of them “…genetics, study and genetic memories helping you. You held a non-military ship’s point defence together against ships that I suspect would have cored most vessels for long enough for us to come and save you, remember.”

His words seemed to help somewhat, because she turned and flashed him a quick smile before returning to monitoring the next set of rounds as they left the chamber. “Asteroid’s spin is adjusting’k… in accordance with predictions’k. Good’k.” She muttered under her breath, watching as fire blossomed on the leading edge of the space rock. “Initial volley successful’k, now we fire the pulverising blows’k.” As she said that, Sola’s guns started to spit fire rapidly rather than single precise volleys. Dustin watched in awe as high explosive missiles and rail-cannon were deployed in a constant tide, turning the apocalyptic-sized rock into smaller and smaller pieces of rubble. Finally, point defence lasers flickered out, carving a narrow path down one side of the cloud of debris into which one final missile flew.

“This is it’k.” Yril’k said, biting one finger anxiously as she watched the missile’s path. “I hope I got this right’k.” From deep within the cloud of rock, the warm orange glow of a detonation began to spread; as Dustin watched, the cloud of debris scattered into an expanding net - before a handful of missiles he’d not noticed being fired detonated. They must have been launched earlier in the bombardment - there was no trail of flame from their exhausts, and the Vex’ess woman had clearly positioned them to act as shock-breaks of a sort as in the aftermath of their explosion the cloud settled into a stable form. From her station the warrior woman breathed a sigh of relief and stepped back. “Sola’k. Please review trajectories’k. Do they conform to predicted paths’k?” The look of delight on Yril’k’s face when the AI confirmed that her planning had paid off was a fantastic thing to behold.