Bloom I, one of two planets in the system Limolius. It was the size of Rucasur but different from that nearly desert-like planet, Bloom’s surface was colored in a beautiful mix of green and blue.

  If Limolius’ location in the Civilized Territories wouldn’t be so remote, Bloom I could be a perfect contender for the next planet-wide wellness resort. But since no one from the inner systems wanted to travel months or even years just to have a few days off at a relaxing beach, Bloom I had very few visitors.

  There were a handful of settlements which were officially under the jurisdiction of the UAS, however even the Alliance had not much business going on there. As such, protection forces were scarce and public security could be boiled down to giving people advice like ‘Don’t mess with the wrong gangs!’.

  Every now and then a fight broke out when a local chief didn’t want to pay up for delivered goods or a smuggler tried to leave the planet with a few refugees and their androids aboard.

  However, four days ago things escalated.

  In a mountainous region not too far away from Data Falls, the capital of Bloom I, a huge battle was raging. For days now, small fighters and dropships circled the area. Every now and then waves of missiles from hidden anti-air defense systems were fired from somewhere within the mountains and tried to push the attacking forces back.

  For the citizens on this side of the planet it was not only the first time that they found themselves in what was basically a war zone, but they also realized that they may not have been as alone on the planet as they had thought. In awe and horror they had to watch as again and again dozens of fighters took into the sky and tried to fend off the attackers, only to be obliterated by heavy ordnance from space.

  In addition to that, rumors began to spread among the people of Bloom I. Those that attempted to flee ran into a blockade in the planet’s lower orbit. A small fleet of unknown origin and without legal identification was preventing anyone from leaving.

  Those who informed their families and friends that they nonetheless would try to leave the planet never sent another message.

  ***

  The holographic map in the conference room of the Relentless Stride showed Bloom I and a few orbital indicators. Around the planet ten big ships were marked in different positions, though they mostly stayed in the area above the conflict zone down on the planet.

  The surface battlefield was indicated with a big red square, not too far away from Data Falls.

  Robin was sitting in the captain’s seat on the bridge and had opened the same strategic map on a screen. Looking out of the huge window, he could see three of the big ships far in the distance. Even with his vision being only grayscale, the ships stood out like a sore thumb in contrast to the bright planet in the background.

  After they reached Bloom I and dropped out of superluminal travel Ang’Tue and Proto immediately contacted the Eltaran to get a better idea of the battle’s situation. Robin just listened in and even before Proto came up with a final risk-evaluation, he knew that they would not be able to step back from this conflict.

  Too much was on the table, too many lives at risk and the Eltaran were doing a good job at keeping the enemy at bay. Robin and his crew could be the deciding factor to end this conflict in the Eltaran’s favor.

  As he observed the ships that formed the blockade, he also saw the wrecks that drifted everywhere. Those were the remains of the Eltaran’s forces, a good chunk of the enemy’s fleet, a few UAS ships that came to investigate and lastly, ships of people that tried to flee the planet.

  “Just how many have lost their lives already?” Robin muttered and raised his hand to rub his temples. Noticing what he was about to do, he quickly stopped himself. This was not the right time to let the others know that his headache was slowly returning. They had other things to do than worry about him.

  Turning his attention back to the map, he confirmed their position and opened the ship’s comm.

  “Okay, you all know why we are here. You all know what’s at stake. We, the crew of the Relentless Stride, have decided to help the people of one of our own. This will be our hardest and longest battle we’ve ever fought.

  We are all friends, family even. But today, we need to be soldiers– soldiers that will do what is necessary without hesitation.”

  Robin paused and thought about his next words before he continued.

  “If things aren’t going as planned, we will pack up and retreat without looking back. However, please get used to the idea that if things are going as planned, we all, every single one of us, will kill many people today.

  Do not hesitate!

  Do not waver!

  Keep your head straight on the battle. The time will come when we can process everything that has happened. We are here to help the Eltaran, to save many people and their families. We have the chance to do something good today. So let’s get out there and make this damn universe a slightly better place.”

  Robin hadn’t prepared a speech or anything, he just had started talking. He knew very well that a good part of his speech was not just directed at the others but at himself in particular. He took another deep breath.

  “I’m first in command and Proto responsible for last-minute adaptations. All visors down, suits sealed, shutter closed. Happy, engage the enemy.”

  After that it got darker on the bridge as the huge window closed its blast shield. However, just a moment later, the glass flickered and vision returned when the outside view got projected onto the dark window.

  “Neat!” Happy whistled.

  The Relentless Stride silently flew towards the big carrier that hovered above the planet. They were undetectable to the enemy’s sensors and the black ship itself melted into the darkness of space around them, becoming invisible for anyone on watch.

  Robin had been a guest on a Humbler Cradle twice already. Once on his way to Ruca II and the second time on his way back, when Landom took him prisoner.

  The huge, 200 meter long carrier could transport up to twelve fighters and functioned as a mobile spaceport. Alena had scanned all four carriers in the blockade and the signatures of this one indicated that it was still filled with fighters.

  Since this was meant to be a hit-and-run attack, they assumed that they would not be able to completely destroy the ship. But there were two critical points which would be vulnerable to their attack. The huge thrusters and the control-tower with the ship’s bridge at its top, overlooking the hangers on the deck below.

  “10.000 meters, closing.” Happy reported.

  “Ang’Tue, updates on the enemy?” Robin asked the Eltaran, who had taken Alena’s duty at the scanner since she was now responsible for the ship’s weapons.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Power level normal, shield in standby.”

  “Okay. Alena, wait until we’re down to 4.000 meters, then fire at will. Proto, be ready to take control of the PDS if needed.”

  The blockade was going on for days now and the battle had shifted from space down to the planet’s surface. Therefore, the fleet had dropped the shields to base level already. Active shields were extremely energy hungry and as such they normally only ran at about 30% strength. As soon as the situation changes, the commander could power them up within seconds.

  Space is vast, even in the most dire situations, you had at least some time to react before whatever was coming would hit you.

  That is except someone managed to sneak up on you.

  “5.000 meters.” Happy shouted.

  There was a brief silence on the bridge as everyone, even Krez who stood at the side, watched the ship directly ahead of them getting bigger.

  “Damn, they really have no idea what will hit them.” The wolf growled when the Cradle didn’t react at all to their approach and Robin believed to hear a mix of awe and dread in his voice.

  “4.000 meters.”

  “Fire!” Alena responded with a shout and immediately the space in front of them lit up. The two laser repeaters fired a stream of green energy projectiles directly at the Cradle’s tall control tower. Less than a second later the carrier’s shield flared up when it blocked the endless impacts of the ongoing attack.

  Light flashed again and again and after just a few seconds, the brightly glowing shield began to thin as it gave in under the strain.

  “Powerspike detected.” Ang’Tue shouted, “They want to boost the shield!”

  “Too late!” Alena muttered just as the energy bubble around the Humbler Cradle broke and dissipated with a small shockwave.

  The barrage never stopped and moments later the ship’s armor gave in as well. Robin watched the close view of the point of impact that was shown on a big display. Metal flew everywhere as the green bolts ate their way into the tower.

  “5 seconds remaining!” Proto reported.

  “Roger, starting to turn.” Happy confirmed.

  They didn’t even need those few more moments, as the tower had sustained too much damage already and blew up in a big explosion. Huge junks of metal shot in all directions and the sudden hull breach sucked out a good part of the lower levels, sending fighter-parts and even people out into the cold space.

  Alena used the last moments of her attack to switch targets and fired on the hangar furthest away from the destroyed tower. Before they could see if she managed to crack it open, the Relentless Stride turned and shot away, leaving the battered and broken Humbler Cradle drifting through space like all the other wrecks around it.

  “They didn’t fire back once!” Happy cheered, clearly being hyped by a rush of adrenaline, “We even had some time left.”

  “No, our repeaters were about to go into a cooldown and the more time we give the enemy now, the more they can prepare for our next attack.” Robin said, “We have done some serious damage. I’m fairly certain that the ship is done for. No need to take more risks just to go for total destruction. Proto, can you give us a damage report on the Cradle?”

  “Your assessment is correct. The destruction of the tower and the bridge will render the ship completely immobile. They also should have lost most of their commanding structure due to the death of most, if not all, high-ranking officers. Hangar 01 was completely destroyed when the tower broke and Hangar 3 is also damaged beyond repair. At best they can utilize the four ships in Hangar 02.”

  Someone whistled appreciatively.

  “Next time, this won’t go so smoothly.” Robin reminded them, “They might not know when we will hit them next, but their shields will be up and they will definitely shoot back.”

  He looked at his friends and a grin crept on his face. He would heed his own advice and wouldn’t think about the people they had just killed but only about the huge success they had in their opening move of this rescue mission.

  “For now, however, good job everyone.” He laughed, “We will teach them fear!”

  There were cheers on the bridge, as everyone let go of the tension they felt.

  After they calmed down, Robin got back to business.

  “Proto, contact the Eltaran and give them an update.”

  “On it!”

  Robin kept his eyes on the map and watched the movement of the ships in the blockade. They probably had only two more chances, by then the enemy should have come up with a counter and any more engagement would be suicide.

  If it were only the carriers or dropships, he wouldn’t worry too much. But in the center of the fleet was one ship that gave Robin goosebumps by just thinking about fighting it. It wasn’t some ship from the market that the enemy had repurposed, but a fully fledged Corvette, a real, freakin’ pure-bred battleship.

  If that thing got close, the journey of the Relentless Stride would come to a pretty quick and painful end– stealth or not.

  “There!” Ang’Tue shouted, pointing at one of the ships that lagged behind while the fleet changed formation. “It’s a dropship, the scans indicate that it is already damaged.”

  Robin quickly checked their distance as well as the distance and course of the Corvette and nodded.

  “Proto, can we quickly get close to it without touching a red zone? We should have a moment before their formation is too tight, right?” He asked.

  The red zones were calculated by Proto and visualized for Happy. She had to avoid those at all costs. These zones indicated viewing angles of the enemy’s ships that would put the Relentless Stride in front of a bright background, like the sun, Bloom I or Bloom II, and make it much more visible to the naked eye and camera detection.

  “Approach is possible.” Proto confirmed a moment later, “A faster approach is recommended, also if possible, we open fire earlier and do a fly-by.”

  “Roger, Happy, go!” Robin quickly decided, “Alena, keep the cannon stashed, even if we don’t get through their shield. I want to keep it as a surprise for whatever they have prepared when their defense is up.”

  “ETA 110 seconds.” Happy reported while she pushed two of the joysticks forward, further accelerating their ship.

  “Robin, we got word from the Eltaran. They gratulate on our success and ask if we could try to take out the last drone-controller. It should be one of two remaining Novas.” Proto suddenly said.

  “Hm, that would be great. As far as I understand that would render a huge part of their ground forces useless. We avoided them earlier, because they were too close to the Corvette. But I would gladly give it a shot when their new formation is more in our favor. We’ll have to wait and see. Can you find out which one is the controller?”

  “After this fight, yes.”

  “60 seconds.”

  “Okay, back to the topic at hand.” Robin said, “Ang’Tue, readings from the scanner?”

  “Yes, as expected, the shield is up. However, the ship is already damaged.” The old man shared the scan results on the big screen, “The right thruster is gone, shield is up but only at 60%, if it is the standard model.”

  Robin looked at the ship. It was smaller than the Cradle, but still much bigger than their walker. It had a long, tube-like hull separated in five sections, two big thrusters at the back and eight VTOL thrusters at the sides. It was made to quickly drop to the ground, open the sides and lower ramps to unload vehicles and soldiers.

  As Ang’Tue had said, the right thruster was missing and the hull in the front was also breached, but the hole wasn’t too big. It probably only lost the frontmost section.

  “Little time has passed.” Robin addressed his friends, “Same strategy as last time. Focus the attack on the back of the ship, take out the remaining thruster first, then concentrate on the last section with the bridge atop.”

  “Confirmed, thruster first.” Alena repeated.

  “15.000 meters.” Happy started.

  “Don’t get jumpy if they shoot back!” Robin reminded Happy when he saw the small but numerous little laser repeaters along the hull. They were probably used to cover the loading or unloading of troops in hot zones, but could certainly also be directed backwards.

  “10.000 meters.”

  Robin used the moment to quickly glance at the map. The Corvette hadn’t changed its course and was still far away. They should be in the clear. Hopefully they would make it through the shield in time.

  “5.000 meters.”

  “Fire!” Alena shouted and once more space was lit brightly by a barrage of green projectiles.

  Robin watched as their attack hit the shield and he instantly noticed that this will be a much closer call than last time. This shield, despite being damaged already, was way stronger.

  Happy slowed down but continued to approach while Alena battered their shield with everything she got.

  “Incoming!” Ang’Tue yelled at the same moment as eight laser guns on the ship came to life and fired back at them. In seconds the Relentless Stride was showered with red energy projectiles that tried to rip the ship apart.