Homestar Saga

Chapter 127: Fools Flailing in the Dark

Yvian stood on the bridge of the Priderender. The blue light of the Gate effect washed in through the viewports of the Vrrl Pridewing class destroyer. Row upon row of consoles stretched before her in a pyramid formation. Only a few of them were occupied. The Vrrl had wasted no time jury rigging the ship to operate without computers. A good chunk of the ship's crew were outside, clinging to the hull as they readied optics and took manual control of the turrets. The rest were scattered throughout the interior, monitoring ship systems with the most primitive means they could devise.

Though she could not see them out of the viewports, Yvian knew another twenty thousand capital ships followed in the Priderender's wake. Battlecruisers, mostly, with a thousand destroyers and twice that number of carriers filled to the brim with Hissith and Clawwing fighters. Yvian had seen larger fleets, but she still thought it might be overkill for what she planned to do.

"Exiting the Gate effect," one of the crewman reported. The voice crackled out of one of the short wave radios strapped to Yvian's helmet. The primitive radios had been mass produced as quickly as the Vrrl could cobble them together. They were ugly, and made everyone wearing them look ridiculous, but they were also the best that could be managed in such a short time. Each ship had their own radio channel, with a second set of radios dedicated to in fleet communications. "Computer systems are down."

"As expected." Warmaster Skrell Scathach, First Hsst of the Priderender, stood on a raised triangular dais just behind the back row of consoles. The Warmaster was wearing voidarmor, black with a pattern of crimson stripes. Hand clasped behind his back, he radiated power and lethal intent. Even the two radios strapped to the side of his helmet failed to make him less intimidating. The man had never failed to be polite. Urbane, even. Yvian was not fooled. The Warmaster was easily the second most dangerous man she'd ever met. "Deploy fighters. Set a course for the edge of the Gate. Maximum acceleration."

Yvian allowed herself a small sigh of relief. The anti-tech field was still active. The Crystal Mother was still in the sector. She'd worried the humans would have taken it away, somehow. Or worse, destroyed it. An irrational fear, now that she thought about it. If they'd taken the Crystal Mother, the Xill would have destroyed the Gate that led here. The system was overrun with Vore nanomachines, and the Mother was the only thing keeping them in check.

The Priderender turned, moving far too quickly and gracefully for a ship of its size. The blue light of the Jumpgate streamed through the viewports on the left side of the bridge. Yvian had used Gates so often over the last few years that the novelty had worn off, but this time she was reminded just how big the things were. The rippling lights stretched over two thousand kilometers, hemmed in by a ring of unknown metal nearly thirteen kilometers thick.

Silence reigned for several minutes. Yvian resisted the urge to fidget. Now was the dangerous part. If the humans were smart, and she knew they were, they'd have at least one ship parked inside the Crystal Mother. The Mother's anti-tech field didn't extend to it's interior, and they'd have full access to sensors. They would know the Vrrl were coming. They would call for reinforcements.

At any moment, a fleet of Federation vessels could come tearing out the Gate. The Vrrl fleet had been hastily retrofitted, but the humans had had more time to prepare. Her hope was that their reaction force was too small to face twenty thousand Vrrl. After all, who could predict she'd ask the monsters for help? Or that they would agree in such an overwhelming fashion?

Reba. Maybe. That was the problem with Synthetic Intelligence. The smartest of them were adept at Predictive Analysis. They could calculate the variables, predict the actions of an insane number of people with a terrifying degree of accuracy. Mims had been careful. They all had. Odds were good the SI didn't know anything about New Pixa's defenses, the crystal cities, or how comfortable the crew had gotten with their man-eating allies. Without that data, Reba could never predict the play Yvian was making. At least, that was the hope.