Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

pressed forward to meet them. The starcruiser Excalibur took the point, its alien-derived engines powering force shields and weaponry of almost unimaginable might. Then came the six starfrigates, forming a defensive wedge behind the Excalibur.
    The crews had their orders. No turning, no surrender; hold their positions until their ships were shot out from under them. And behind them, the Last Standing, and Diana Vertue, and her last desperate plan to save Humanity. If she could just survive long enough to get close to the Shub fleet, everything might yet change. If her plan worked. A plan so desperate she hadn't dared share it with anyone else.
    The two forces came together, and neither would give way.
    Afterward, no one could remember who fired the first shot. It didn't matter.
    Both sides opened up with everything they had, and space was full of silent flaring energies as blazing disrupter beams impacted against unyielding force shields. The huge Shub fleet spread out and tried to sweep past the human defenders, overwhelming them by sheer numbers, but the Last Standing's extensive weapons systems targeted and blew apart everything that came within range, its powerful guns slapping aside the lesser Shub shields like they were nothing. The rogue AIs quickly realized that they had to destroy the castle if they were to
    reach Golgotha, and concentrated their entire fleet's firepower on the handful of human ships that stood between them and the Last Standing. Both forces came to a halt in space, as the unstoppable force met eight immovable objects.
    The Excalibur shook and shuddered under the impact of so many energy weapons, but its shields held. The starfrigates weren't so lucky. One by one their shields overloaded and went down, and one by one they were blown out of existence by the Shub fleet. But they went down fighting, chipping away at the far greater Shub vessels, weakening them enough for the Excalibur's superior firepower to destroy them. Shub ships blew apart, expanding suddenly and silently in the unforgiving cold and dark of space, and as every Shub ship disappeared, the human forces moved a little closer, cutting down the distance between Diana Vertue and her prey.
    She watched the starfrigates disappear on her viewscreen in the great Hall, and heard the death cries of their crews in her mind, but could not let herself grieve. She had to stay focused, for what was to come.
    With all the frigates gone, the Last Standing had a clear field of fire. It opened up with all its hundreds of weapons stations, and Shub ships vanished in the long night. Giles Deathstalker had designed the Last Standing to be one great weapon, a last redoubt against the awesome resources of the old Empire.
    Shub had nothing that could stand against it, save its overwhelming superiority of numbers. The rogue AIs threw vessel after vessel at the castle, hammering at its shields with relentless firepower; enough sheer energy to destroy entire worlds. The Last Standing pressed slowly forward into the ravening energies, but its shields were beginning to weaken now, and both sides knew it.
    Diana Vertue stood alone in the great Hall, unable to shut out the screams of the dying. She'd always known most of the people she'd brought with her would
    have to die, to get her close enough for her plan to have a chance at working, but that didn't make it any easier. She tried to summon up her old Jenny Psycho persona. Jenny wouldn't have cared. But she'd been Diana Vertue too long now, been sane too long, and she couldn't go back. She fought to hold back her tears.
    She had to go on. She was Humanity's last hope.
    Jack Random and Ruby Journey manned their weapons stations deep within the castle, targeting and firing their disrupter cannon faster than any human or inhuman mind could match. Together they blew great holes in the Shub fleet, destroying ship after ship, but they were too busy to exult. They were both boosting now, pushing their bodies to their limits, refusing to feel the pain as muscles and organs were worn down faster than they could regenerate. Their eyes were wide and unblinking, their faces dripping with sweat, their mouths stretched in unpleasant smiles. They could feel the life draining slowly out of them, and didn't give a damn. They had set their honor and their lives on the determination that Shub should not pass, and they would not pause or falter till the Shub fleet was destroyed, or they were.
    That was why Diana had brought