Page 45 of The Commanders' Mate

Pulling back on the throttle, I approached slowly, drifting toward the massive structure. The Hive ship was huge, easily five times the size of Battleship Karter. I’d never seen anything like it, and I’d seen too fucking much in this war.

“Battleship Karter, this is Commander Wothar. Are you getting this?”

“Affirmative, Commander. Rerouting to I.C. Command and Prillon Prime, as instructed.”

“Good. Stay with me as long as you can.” That was an order for them to record and rebroadcast everything I did, everything I saw and everything I said—until I said nothing at all. In which case, I’d be dead, but the information I gathered would not die with me.

“Understood, sir.”

I killed the chatter and flew closer to the giant ship. The shape of a massive rod at least half a mile wide and a mile long, the ship spun around like a floating bullet revolving through space toward its target. The sides were rough, meant to look like an asteroid or stray rock rotating on its axis. Just another space rock, except the front was tipped into the shape of a five-pointed star that pointed directly at Battleship Karter and her crew.

Over my dead body.

The weapons array was massive, nearly as large as Battleship Karter all by itself. “Holy fuck. This thing is huge. I’m getting in there.”

“Back off, Ronan. You’re too close. Wait for the rest of us. We’re two minutes behind you.” Commander Phan’s voice filled my small cockpit, but I didn’t take orders from her. Or Karter. The only one who could order me off this run was Prime Nial himself, and he was the one who had ordered me into the mouth of the beast in the first place. I had every intention of making sure whatever this was, no other battlegroup or planet would be caught unaware. Not again.

Too many were dead now because of this Hive ship.

“Stay back, Chloe. They can’t see me. Fifty fighters flying right at them, and they’ll launch a response.”

“Damn it, Ronan.” Chloe cursed at me, but I was right, and she knew it. “I can’t let them fly right past us. The Karter’s back there. We have orders to intercept.”

“I know.” My ship slipped into the cave-like mouth of the weapon’s star shaped opening, and I peered at the towering crystalline formations within, circled slowly, making sure I got a clear vid of every inch of the new weapon. “Draw them off, if you have too. But stay away from the bow. I’m in stealth mode, but I don’t need company.”

“Copy that. All fighters on me. Battle formation. Keep it tight. We’ll come in on their six. We’ll try to keep them away from you, Ronan. Do what you can. Yell if you need help.”

“Confirmed.” I continued my report. Their six meant the rear of the ship. It was Earth slang, but everyone in the fleet had picked it up quickly, once the humans started showing up in fight squadrons. They were good pilots. Small. Fast. Coordinated. And fearless. Human ReCon teams had saved thousands of warriors, breaking into Hive-controlled vessels and dragging our people out.

And now, another female, my mate, might be the sole reason we destroyed the Hive’s newest weapon. Erica Roberts might just save us all with her brilliant mind. Had she been matched because of her knowledge of the stars? Was she matched to save us all in this moment? I doubted I would ever know that answer.

Pride swelled in me nonetheless, but I had a job to do. “Star formations, five points, weapons’ cluster is located inside the bow of the ship. Looks like magnetic coils the size of shuttle craft wrapped around the base of each crystal array.” I flew in deeper, took a couple shots at one of the arrays with my ion blasters as the sounds of voices shouting, shots fired and the general chaos of battle filled my small cockpit with noise. I turned off incoming transmissions, kept the data flow out open wide. I could not afford distractions.

The ion blasts my ship fired bounced off the arrays like insults off Kaed’s back. “Close range ion blaster fire is ineffective. Switching to rail guns.”

Rail guns were old tech. Centuries old, but the Fleet had continued to use them. Sometimes the best weapons were tried and true.

I fired. Flew close. Watched. Waited.

Not a scratch, and I had to scramble to make the turn before I crashed into the side of the Hive ship. It was like flying inside a cave full of massive, indestructible stalagmites towering up from their bases to point ou

t into the stars. At us.

At life.

At my mate.

Fuck.

I turned my comms back on to monitor the battle. It sounded like hell out there. Our fighters were being swarmed.

“Ronan! Whatever you’re doing, make it fast. It’s like you just kicked the beehive and they’re pissed, pouring out like water. We’re outnumbered and overrun. We can’t hold our position much longer.”

As Phan spoke, three drone fighters appeared above me, their scanners on, looking for the threat. I went dark, melting into the side of their ship beneath one of the huge coils. I was still in stealth mode, which meant they wouldn’t see my ship unless they looked with their own eyes. Not likely. Like all the warriors in this war, we relied too heavily on our sensors and gear, and not enough on our own instincts. Our sight. Our senses.

But then, the Hive were assimilated, part of a large, collective group-think. Did they still have instincts?

“Karter, this is Commander Wothar.” I spoke quietly, even though I didn’t need to. Instinct.

---