Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

themselves. They knew how valuable ships were to the Empire these days. So they stood and fought and sometimes they won. But mostly they died.
    The scene changed again to show Captain Cross on the bridge of the Excalibur.
    His dark face was thoughtful but focused as he studied the course of the battle.
    Around him was a bedlam of noise as his bridge crew shared information from their stations, and where necessary yelled a running commentary. More crew ran back and forth on urgent errands, their voices high with tension and excitement.
    Captain Cross gave orders in a calm, professional manner, and only when he was sure he could spare the time did he turn to look out of the viewscreen at Parliament.
    "As you can see, we're rather busy at the moment, so I'll try and keep this short. We've come up with a few new tactics that seem to be bringing us a measure of success at last. The insects are hard to kill, but they have their weaknesses. Battle espers are the key. If we can fight our way close enough to an insect ship, and hold our position long enough, the battle espers can sever the mental link between the ship's queen and her warrior drones. Without a queen to guide them, they're just insects, with no purpose of their own. Sitting ducks. The problem is getting close enough without getting our asses shot off in the process."
    His bridge lurched as a workstation exploded in smoke and flames, the screams only just drowned out by the emergency sirens. Somebody hit the station with a
    foam extinguisher, but the operator was already beyond saving. A security man put the poor bastard out of his misery with a shot to the head. Cross turned away from the screen and studied the instruments before him.
    "I'll have to get back to you later. We're almost close enough to take out a queen. Or possibly vice versa. Someone will contact you again, once the battle is over. Excalibur out."
    The viewscreen became clear again, taking with it the screams and sirens of the Excalibur's bridge.
    "Our next report comes from the planet Aquarius Rising," said Gutman, his voice calm and even. "The Fleet there is dealing with a newly discovered Hadenman Nest on that world."
    The viewscreen now showed E-class starcruisers clashing with golden Hadenmen ships over a large blue world. The infamous golden ships of legend were huge, bigger than cities, but caught in a battle in local space, their size became irrelevant. The firepower of the two types of ship was pretty much equal, and vast destructive energies passed between the heavily shielded vessels. The great ships whirled and clashed, with no quarter asked or given on either side.
    Humanity would never trust the Hadenmen again. Here and there, broken ships spouting radioactive fires spiraled slowly end over end down toward the planet's atmosphere and a fiery demise.
    The view changed to show D-class starcruisers in low orbit, pounding the exposed Hadenmen Nest with everything they had. Stabbing disrupter beams plunged down through the atmosphere, tearing the shining metal structures apart, and blowing up the energy centers. More scenes came, overlapping views from communication probes dropped by the Empire ships. Hadenmen ran desperately through burning streets, trying to reach their escape ships, only to find them shattered and
    destroyed on cratered landing pads. The few Hadenmen craft that did manage to get off the ground were blown apart before they even left the atmosphere. Some of the augmented men fought back from unfamiliar weapon stations, and strange energies flew up to shudder against the starcruisers' shields. But one by one the stations were identified and blown apart by pinpoint disrupter accuracy.
    Foot by foot, augmented man by augmented man, the Nest was destroyed.
    Radiation levels rose dramatically on Aquarius Rising. The air and the water and the earth would be poisonous for centuries. Where the Nest had been there was in the end only a great volcanic crater, spewing dust and smoke and magma high up into the atmosphere. Earthquakes tore across the continent and gave the lands new shapes. The blazing hulks of golden ships fell from the skies like fiery meteors.
    Aquarius Rising had been a pleasure world, once. The Empire destroyed it, to save it from the curse of the Hadenman.
    "And that was one of our… victories," said Elias Gutman, as the screen cleared again. "We're discovering new Nests all the time. The Hadenmen took good advantage of our misplaced trust to seed themselves