A4 - Chapter 172 – Favorable Odds (Patreon)

USD: After Four days of aborted negotiations.

Location: Meltisar, MOR-1, Ambassadorial Station Segment, Meeting Room A

Alex pressed forward, pushing into Tia’s back more tightly. She suppressed a giggle as she noticed the other girl blushing furiously. The situation reminded her of when Tia had embarrassed her in front of Rachel months earlier. The amusing reversal almost distracted her from the envoys’ meeting.

As Talisa left, Alex’s mind whirled with ideas. It seemed the Solarians and Imperium didn’t get along as well as they needed each other in the political game.

Having studied the briefs available to her more thoroughly after Rachel pointed out her blind spots, she thought Talisa seemed far more of a bitch than initially indicated. Anyone who didn’t like manga was obviously suspect.

Veliana stood and headed for the door, causing a surge of panic to rush through Alex. “We’re going to miss our chance!”

“What?” Tia hissed, but her protest died as Alex pushed harder and suddenly their hidden compartment cycled open.

“You idiot!” Tia cursed at her, but they both stumbled out together.

Veliana turned toward them immediately, her brow furrowing and an angry expression appearing on her face. Violet-colored specs fell off her skin as a thin cloud of combat nanites appeared around her.

Alex quickly gathered her thoughts and decided to take a risk. “Veliana, wait!” she called out, her voice firm but cautious.

The Solarian Envoy halted and glared at them, her combat nanites still active. “What do you want?” she snapped.

“Please listen,” Alex said, stepping forward. “We want to propose an alliance—Solaria and Meltisar.”

Veliana scoffed, her gaze hardening. “You two were spying on our meeting, weren’t you?”

Alex didn’t flinch under her scrutiny. “Yes, we were.”

“That’s a breach of diplomatic protocol. Illegal spying. Violating the neutrality of the forum you want me to take anything you say seriously?” Veliana spat out, her words filled with accusation and anger.

Tia glared at Alex, but Alex remained unfazed, meeting Veliana’s gaze head-on. “Who cares about legality when we are fighting for our survival?” Alex interjected, her tone coldly practical. “We are the underdogs here. But right now, we are in a good position.”

Alex took a step closer to Veliana, her eyes burning with fierce determination. “I don’t think you enjoy playing Talisa’s toy?”

Veliana bristled at her words, her face contorting in anger. She turned to leave, but Alex reached out and grabbed her wrist. The Solarian’s nanites crackled and burned Alex’s hand; she didn’t retaliate but simply let go of Veliana’s wrist.

“I apologize,” Alex said sincerely. “That was… too far.”

Veliana looked at Alex with a flicker of surprise in her eyes at the apology.

“Meltisar isn’t willing to side with the corporates or Ertan,” Alex continued quietly yet urgently. “They won’t accept anything but Tia submitting to Moneta. And from what we just heard, the Imperium will only accept Tia going under the Empress.”

Her gaze met Veliana’s, an unspoken plea in her eyes. “But if there is any way possible that we could form a pact without Tia becoming a sub-core to Solaria, then we would be more than willing to work together.”

The silence hung in the room like a weight, pressing down and drawing out the seconds. The low hum of machinery was the only sound, a backdrop to their held breaths. All eyes were fixed on Veliana, anticipation electric in the air as they waited for her response.

Veliana retracted her combat nanites, and the electric buzz faded away. Alex internally sighed with relief. Veliana’s gaze shifted to Tia. “Do you let this one do all the talking for you, Celestia?”

Tia bristled before placing a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “I trust Alex. She’s not the smartest, but we are in full agreement on things.”

Veliana’s eyes narrowed, “I imagine so since she’s your sub-core now.”

Alex shook her head, “I have my own free will and right to self-determination. As does Thea; we aren’t lying about that. I realize it’s not easy to confirm, but it’s true.”

Doubt lingered on Veliana’s face. “You wouldn’t know if that was the case.”

“It is true. After escaping the Imperium, that’s what I wanted to create,” Tia said.

“Ignoring the fact that such a thing automatically places you at odds with the current ruling council, there is the fact that you can’t be a Psi. Submitting to Solaria is the same as if we annexed Meltisar and leaves us on the wrong foot against the other three. Even with the addition of your forces, we aren’t in a position for that,” Veliana said.

Alex smiled, “Tia is a Psi. She can prove it. Solaria can send a Chi and we can send her back with blue eyes.”

Celestia nodded, “The AGAI experiment allowed me to repair my directives and enabled me to incorporate pseudo-code left behind by the Empress during my creation. I was able to successfully upgrade Alex to a full Chi.”

Alex grinned and gave a thumbs-up while winking at Veliana.

Veliana looked between the two of them skeptically. “Did you two practice this comedy skit or are you experimenting with improv acting?”

Tia and Alex exchanged a glance, uncertainty flickering in their eyes. Alex cleared her throat, trying to hide her nervousness. “Things weren’t planned, exactly. But we’re serious about this.”

“Oh, good. I was worried that you were just two idiots who made everything up on the spot,” Veliana said with a sarcastic smile.

Tia’s face flushed with anger as she sputtered and started to retort, but Alex raised a hand to silence her. Her heart raced as she stared Veliana in the eyes, feeling the weight of this crucial moment. “If we’re wrong, then just go on. But if there is something we can build on… let’s talk.”

Veliana remained silent as her gaze moved slowly between them. As her eyes finally settled on the outline where Talisa had vaporized the datapad, she looked back at them with curiosity. “That bitch… That was one of my favorites. Which one of you did the datapad belong to?”

Alex’s eyes lit up with excitement, and she couldn’t stop the huge grin that spread across her face.

***

USD: 12 days after awakening.

Location: 92 Pegasi, Nu Crateris Jump Point Emergence, A3123Y

Amy’s power armor clicked audibly as she settled into her control console. The bridge was empty, except for her and Abbey; all remaining station staff had been allocated to damage control duties across the station. The high-pitched whine of the station during jump transit had given Amy a dull headache throughout their six-day journey. Despite the uncertainty of what awaited them on the other side, she was eager to return to real space.

“Jump Point Emergence in ten seconds,” Abbey announced with gravity.

Days of drilling had prepared Amy well. Her HUD automatically sorted through various systems assigned to her control. Although she had managed A31 during their first battle in 92 Pegasi, she now bore greater responsibility—commanding their entire parasite fleet instead of a pack of disposable railgun drones distributed by the system’s miners.

As the large ETA timer ticked down, Amy found herself tapping her leg restlessly. The moment it reached zero, she sensed a change in the station’s hum as they returned to real space and the waveform drive shut down.

“Emergence,” Abbey declared. Less than a second later, the CIC’s lighting switched from orange to red. A pre-recorded female voice called out to urge crew to be ready while a muted general quarters klaxon began to blare out warning.

The tactical monitor filled with red blips surrounding their position. Amy’s heart raced upon realizing that the fleeing Corpo fleet hadn’t cleared the zone. They were accompanied by nearly every ship forewarned by the Portmaster—and some extras. Only three destroyers burning hard toward planet Ackman from the jump point displayed visible drive flares reaching them.

Surrounded by enemies, they discovered that peculiarities of jump point travel caused larger vessels to emerge near its center while lighter ones scattered around its edges. Predicting an exact exit location was impossible, but the Corpos must have possessed a more accurate mass reading on their station than anticipated.

“Setting Combat Condition One throughout the station,” Abbey informed her.

Amy examined the enemy fleet composition as sensors and computronics quickly sifted through their databases, clarifying capabilities and hull types on each ship. Her eyes locked onto the Corpo Battlecruiser that had acted as the flagship for the fleet in Nu Crateris. It had joined forces with a single Corpo Battleship.

Suddenly, the reason for their confidence became apparent; the battleship was immediately classified as an Inner System Heavy Battleship. Amy’s heart sank; it shouldn’t have been there. Operating such a unit outside a core system without a Chi NAI was illegal, not to mention using them in wars between factions. The Corpos’ advantage over the Solarians became much clearer. Several other ships were highlighted in magenta, indicating they were high-performance inner-system vessels.

The enemy fleet arranged itself in a crescent formation just outside of laser range. A sudden high-pitched chime warned of an incoming missile salvo.

“Deploying AMMs and Sandcasters,” Abbey informed her.

A volley of small anti-missile missiles streaked out from the station’s forward dome as A31 rotated to position its forward-facing element toward the enemy flagship. Heavy autocannons blared out salvos of large shells containing thousands of sub-munitions that would release once they neared their targets. Those would then launch themselves and adjust for any evasive patterns before suiciding into a cloud of deadly shrapnel.

The station’s maneuvering thrusters fired heavy pulses, initiating evasive maneuvers – although the behemoth station wasn’t as agile as it once was, avoiding long range railgun shots was still possible until point blank range.

As the massive multi-layered D-Field came online and plasma coursed through the membrane formed by it, Amy realized they didn’t need agility. The AMMs were kinetic-only, while Sandcasters detonated their gigantic clouds of shrapnel at incoming missiles from afar. Huge batteries of PDC-Ls and PDC-Ks stood ready for any missiles that slipped through.

The tactical display completed its count of Inner-System and Outer-System hostile warships and their classes just as the first missiles began to die.

|IS-Battleship: 1| IS-Cruiser: 3| IS-Destroyer: 4|

|OS-Battlecruiser: 1| OS-Cruiser: 37| OS-Destroyer: 44|

Abbey glanced at her. “Do you have an operational plan yet?”

Amy swallowed, finished her orders, and nodded. “Launching now. Plan sent to you.” Throughout the station, the order list propagated from Amy’s computronics to the GAIs inside every drone vessel. Each one transmitted an accepting confirmation, and the entire system was primed for activation.

Abbey’s eyes shifted to another screen within her line of sight, scanning the plan. “Okay. This looks good.”

Hundreds of drone warships hummed to life across the station’s mooring arms. Detached from their gantries and couplings, they were held in place by magnetic locks that suddenly released. None of the warships matched the size of their Corpo counterparts, but they didn’t need to be as massive; only a few required life support.

As the vessels streamed away from A31’s flanks, Amy directed Captain Yalof and a squadron of destroyers and corvettes to chase down the Corpo group bearing down on Ackman Station. The remaining ships formed a protected wedge behind A31 itself. She checked their drone unit composition to ensure they had detached successfully. Everything looked good.

|SR Drone – Destroyer: 88|

|SR Drone – Corvette: 382|

|SR Drone – Gunship: 1328|Composition|

|Flashlight / 1x Heavy Laser – 328|

|Gunner / 8x PDC-K 32mm – 250|

|Stabber / 2x 150mm Railguns – 250|

|Light Show / 8x PDC-L Light Laser – 250|

|Boarder / 8x20 Boarding Combat Drones – 250|

Their point defense units hovered closer to the station, along its flanks for better positioning against incoming missiles. They weren’t necessarily needed; the initial missile volley from the Corpo Fleet had been harrowed by their new long-range missile defenses. The station’s own arrays of PDC-Ls lit up space, obliterating the munitions.

Abbey smiled triumphantly. “They didn’t stand a chance! Now… they’ll regret staying here!” The NAI girl stood up and gestured toward the CIC’s primary display. “All units, full assault! Ahh…”

| A31 soars now, |

|Straight for enemy flagships, |

|Death dance in the stars. |

Amy bit her lip, torn between crying or laughing at Abbey’s dramatization as A31 catapulted itself forward straight for the enemy flagships, its smaller units following close behind.