Chapter 2690: Unease
The fighting still continued long after the Battle of Reckoning was decided.
This was also the reason why everyone still wore their protective suits. No matter how safe the situation looked, there were still Fridaymen and Garlaners out there who were firing shots at the expedition forces!
Thousands of Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers were still actively fighting their opponents in some way. Whether it was chasing down the routed starships or bombarding the hostile mechs that remained intact, people were still being killed hours after the initial confrontation!
The only difference from before was that the proportion of losses heavily tilted in the favor of the Golden Skull Alliance.
The rats fleeing before them no longer possessed the strength to win the battle, let alone preserve their lives! All of the chases devolved into a one-sided shooting match where the outcome was already set. This was how many space battles ended. There was no escape so long as one side was able to prevent the other one from transitioning into FTL travel.
One of the most notable operations was the attempt to take over the Auralis.
Inside and around the eerily-silent fleet carrier, the golden vessel had suddenly become active without any warning!
The boarding parties that were slowly making their way to the bridge, the primary engineering bay and several other important compartments had no clue that a cat had overtaken them. They were still breaching one hatch after another.
They thought that even if the Golden Skull Alliance won the battle, it would take a lot longer for their infantry troops to make any progress inside.
This was because unlike the Fridaymen, the Hexers and other foreigners would be met with active resistance from the ship's internal defense systems!
Of course, the expeditionary forces could also choose to employ a more destructive approach by breaching through the interior by borrowing the power of mechs.
This was an incredibly destructive approach that would inflict a lot of collateral damage to the Auralis. That was not conducive to taking over the ship in the best condition possible.
"Will they really keep their mechs out?" A CRC marine softly wondered.
"I don't know. I dare not say. Perhaps the AIs will see sense when the enemy is tearing the ship apart from the inside. I hope the ship will unlock all of these hatches for us so that we can reach her critical compartments within minutes."
Nothing seemed to have happened so far, so the boarding parties were still progressing slowly.
"Hm? Did you hear that?" A combat engineer raised his helmet. "My sensors are picking up faint activity above and below us. Something is vibrating beneath the deck."
"What is your best guess?" A marine captain stepped forward while holding his rifle ready.
"According to my judgement, it's as if a large mechanical system is about to activate beneath us. The only possibility that I can think of is.. oh no! This is bad! We need to exit this hallway as soon as possible! The security systems are about to go online!"
The remainder of the boarding party didn't hesitate. Even if they had doubts, they weren't about to question the word of an expert.
Unfortunately, it was far too late! Before the engineer running in front managed to cross half of the distance to the entrance they came from, the entire deck shoved upwards all at once before squashing straight against the ceiling!
"AAAH!"
Sounds of pain, fear and agony spread out for less than a single second as the deck pressed their armored forms into the ceiling with great force!
Miraculously, none of them died, though plenty were dealing with broken bones or uncomfortable positions. The force that drove the deck into the ceiling wasn't powerful enough to flatten the tough combat armor worn by the marines.
This condition didn't last too long. A large laser projector emerged from a hidden port at the end of the hallway. It charged up briefly before firing a powerful beam that swept every trapped body in the narrow corridor!
It only took a couple of seconds for all of the protection to melt and burn under the sustained attack!
In the end, the deck receded back to its original position. Only several piles of slag and ashes remained out of the boarding party.
In another compartment of the Auralis, another boarding party suffered its end.
Their deaths were much more straightforward. Turrets emerged from the ceiling. They instantly locked on to the Fridaymen that the ship considered intruders and began to open fire!
"Crap! The Hexers took control of the ship!"
A torrent of laser beams and small explosive shells impacted the boarding party. While the marines fired back, the turrets were too well-protected!
Their firepower was also vastly superior to any weapon that could be carried on foot. They chewed through the resilient armor of the marines with great efficiency!
The Fridaymen were being killed off rapidly throughout the rest of the ships. Hundreds of visitors who wanted to take the Auralis away or at least deprive her from the enemy were completely at the mercy of the powerful internal defense systems.
There was no escape!
It only took a minute to dispose of every enemy aboard the ship. Calabast observed the projections of the active incidents with satisfaction. Military starships of this caliber always featured extensive internal defense systems. Their lethality against hostile visitors was so great that successful boarding operations rarely happened in wars.
Of course, these internal defense systems did not wake up under normal conditions. There were plenty of safeguards and locks in place to prevent them from activating by mistake.
A ship could easily kill most if not all of her crew if it was hacked or glitched!
For this reason, the internal defense systems only activated when a human gave them permission to do so. In this case, Calabast was easily able to do so once the Auralis mistook her as the captain of the vessel.
The permission of the captain was the greatest and most authoritative. If she assumed the identity of an ensign, then it was very difficult to get any of the internal defense systems to fire upon other people!
"It's too easy." She muttered as she closed the projections.
While she couldn't guarantee that every intruding Fridayman was killed, none of them should have been able to reach the critical compartments of the ship. The Auralis wouldn't be at risk of blowing up if that was the case.
"Alright, Black Cats. The Auralis is under my initial control, but don't lower your guard. There may be infiltrators and other survivors scurrying about. It's impossible to sweep the entire Auralis with the manpower we have at hand, so just hold the critical compartments such as the bridge, the command center and the engineering bay until the rest of our fleet is able to dispatch follow-up parties. I've just registered your new identities to the Auralis so that you'll be recognized as her officers and engineers. That should be sufficient to unlock every hatch in your way."
The Black Cat operatives quickly entered deeper inside the Auralis. Unlike the Fridaymen who were blocked at every entrance, the hatches automatically slid open when a Black Cat came close.
This was the privilege that crew members recognized by the Auralis enjoyed.
Along the way, they encountered plenty of bodies along the way. What was notable about all of them was that their physical bodies were still alive.
The sight became more and more eerie as the Black Cats encountered more and more braindead Gaugers.
Hundreds of them littered the decks of large and important compartments such as the command center and the hangar bays.
At first, the Black Cats proactively fired their rifles at the bodies. They couldn't be sure if any of the original crew would wake up again.
It was only after killing a dozen or so crew members that they stopped bothering.
"They're not alive anymore."
Though Black Cats were trained to keep their cool under many different circumstances, the realization that they were on a ship with over 20,000 braindead crew members slowly dawned upon them. It was all well and good to hear about it from afar, but it was only when they started bumping into bodies left and right that they truly learned how horrible it was for all of these people to die out at once!
"This feels wrong. I don't think the weapon employed by the Valkyrie mechs should ever be used again."
An officer smacked the back of his subordinate's helmet!
"Shut up! We can't show any mercy to our enemies. If our side didn't employ this new attack method, we'd be the ones who would be lying on the deck. Our bodies would probably look a lot uglier than this, assuming the Fridaymen didn't outright blow up our ships."
Humans were creatures of emotions. None of them could rein them in when faced with the horrible sights of hundreds if not thousands of Fridaymen lying senselessly on the deck.
It would have been easier for them to accept the fate of their enemies if their bodies were riddles with holes and burn marks.
Instead, their hazard suits and combat armor were completely pristine. Not a single suit showed signs of physical damage and intrusion. Even now, their automated systems were still doing their best to keep the braindead Fridaymen in optimum condition.
It was as if they were still alive and well.
This juxtaposition was so jarring to the Black Cats that they were becoming more and more uncomfortable with being on the ship.
"Is the Auralis haunted?"
"Maybe the souls of the dead are still floating around."
"The Superior Mother cleansed the Auralis because the ship is unclean. We shouldn't be here."
Of course, the changes in mentality did not escape Calabast. She frowned deeper when she noted that the progress and efficiency of her operatives was dropping by the minute.
It was as if they thought they were on a ghost ship!
"I should step up their mental training. Their performance is completely unacceptable."
DIVA agents wouldn't be quaking in their boots in this situation. Instead, they'd be happy whenever they saw another Fridayman victim.
While the takeover of the Auralis was proceeding apace, the fate of the other starships of the enemy strike force was already being decided.
Task Force Umbra had lost its ability to defend itself. Aside from some scattered bunker mechs and some other heavily-damaged mechs, the Eager Condemnation, the Amagi, the Forward Momentum and the Orca Tyrant were constantly being pursued by a number of opposing mechs and combat carriers.
The crew of the Amagi and the Orca Tyrant both acted decisively. As soon as every window of escape was closed, the two deep strike fleet carriers exploded from within!
The pursuing Larkinson and Glory Seeker mechs abruptly turned around and tried to distance themselves from the two exploding vessels. The crews of the two ships had done so much work to maximize the power of the explosions that it was too dangerous to get too close!
Fortunately, the pursuers were already expecting this to happen.
"Two down, two to go!"
The Forward Momentum took a lot longer to meet the same end. She had accelerated away from the battlefield very quickly. Yet despite how much the crew overloaded her sub-light propulsion and decreased her mass, her fundamental nature as a capital ship didn't change.
She eventually exploded as well as the Vanguarders performed their duty to the end!
As for the Eager Condemnation, the Larkinson Clan received a secret transmission from the fleeing carrier.
Ves became notified as soon as it became clear that the transmission was addressed to him in person.
"Are you kidding me?" He looked skeptical. "Aisling wants to defect to our clan?"
"Yes, sir." Major Verle informed him over the comm.
"I don't think the rest of the crew will be happy to send her off on a shuttle."
"Lady Curver has already come up with a plan for that. She has already prepared an escape vessel, but she lacks an escape route. We'll need to open one up for her. She has sent a partial diagram of the fleet carrier to us in order to accomplish this. She specifically instructs our artillery mechs to concentrate their firepower at a specific section in the lower port hangar bay. That is the area where Unit L was assigned to. As long as we breach the right areas, the Fridaymen won't be able to prevent her escape."
Ves crossed her arms. "Why should we follow along with her plan?"
"She… not only offers her mech design expertise, but all of the confidential research data she has access to with regards to basic neural networks and asymmetrical neural networks."
"I see."
That changed his consideration. Ves quickly made up his mind. "Do it, then. I'm eager to get my hands on that data. Even if I can't use any of it, I can still gain a lot of insights by understanding Master Huron's methods."
Major Verle did not immediately disappear. "There's one more condition, sir. Lady Curver only agrees to hand over the data intact as long as you promise that you will keep her alive and treat her well. Not only that, she wants to join our clan and become one of us. As long as you don't promise that to her in person, the deal is off. She has assured us that we won't see any scrap of research data if we don't cooperate. She has stored it all in her implant and rigged it up with enough safeguards that it will all be corrupted if she isn't safe anymore."
Damn! Aisling knew him too well!
Ves felt really conflicted. He hated Aisling with a passion. Gloriana would probably love nothing more than to kill her as well.
Yet… he really wanted to get his hands on her data. With Aisling's considerable technical expertise, he fully believed that her safety measures couldn't be circumvented.
"Proceed with rescuing her." Ves commanded. "I still have time to make a final decision. I'll figure out my response when we bring her back to the Spirit of Bentheim. Just make sure that word doesn't spread."
The last thing he wanted to see was Gloriana finding out about this secret deal!