Operation Phoenix: The Flight of the _Long Shot_ part 3 of 3 "Looks like we're in for a bigger fight than expected." The four X'hirjq cruisers were filling the screen, each one several cubic miles of big, nasty weaponry filled with killer lizards. And here I was, one little flying saucer with a slightly damaged engine. Granted, the _Long Shot_ had just fired on and managed to destroy one X'hirjq cruiser, but four equally powerful ships, fully powered? Even Vegas wouldn't put odds on that one. Still.... "Charging blindly into the fray," I muttered, "goes Professor Malaclypse, idiot savant of the Jihad." I stood up, and tried to look as commanding as possible. "Minerva! Maximum power to the shields and weapons. Let's see how lucky we are!" Minerva was a little slow in answering. A pause. *** The attack began. A thousand fighters screamed across the void towards the _Long Shot_, beams blazing and plasma cannon firing. The shots bounced off the shields, although a few got through, leaving nasty-looking char marks on the hull. Intercepts from the _Long Shot_ nailed most the missiles, and a score of fighters in the bargain. The fighters swarmed around the saucer, diving and swooping close to the _Long Shot_, hammering plasma again and again into the shield. The _Long Shot's_ cutter beam lanced out, dancing nervously as it tried to destroy the X'hirjq ships. As the beam touched a fighter, it burst in a puff of superheated oxygen and plasma. From the bridge of the lead X'hirjq ship, the battle looked like a swarm of hornets attacking another insect. Tiny flashbulbs indicated the destruction of fighters and other, random plasma discharges. The numbers of hornets began to decline, until the space around the _Long Shot_ was filled with debris. The saucer began to move slowly forward. "All ships!" yelled the Task Force Commander into a comlink, "Prepare for direct ship-to-ship combat! Shields to full, all weapons online. Maintain a comlink on this channel." She sat back and waited for the ships to come within range of the _Long Shot_ Let's see if this Jihaddi can take us all on, she thought. *** And in another sector of trans-lunar space, Admiral Michael Davis, Blood Jihad Space Fleet, looked at a tactical display, and wondered about what would draw four full-sized battlecruisers away from the main X'hirjq fleet. "Tactical, can we get a picture of what those lizard ships are fighting?" "Yessir, hang on." The view expanded to show the four battlecruisers and thier target. "Got it, Admiral." Davis looked at the small object in the display. "I don't believe it," he muttered. "I just don't fucking believe it." *** The _Long Shot_ wasn't shuddering anymore from the impact of plasma and missiles against the shields. Instead, it was more of a steady vibration. Still, with the fighters out of the way, we had a chance. We surged ahead at all possible speed, which unfortunately, wasn't very fast. The plasma discharges had fouled up the drive systems something fierce. And yet, with weapons at full strength and shields not yet drained, I figured we could at least get past the X'hirjq ships... "Launch everything we have! Fire!" *** The _Long Shot_ burst into a flurry of energy. Intercepts fired, cutters shot out from three points on the hull, and globes of nova-hot plasma flew away from the saucer at deceptively slow speeds. Plasma hit plasma, causing amazing novas to burst between the ships. The cutters dug narrow grooves in the X'hirjq vessels, and the X'hirjq plasma drained the _Long Shot's_ shields. The _Long Shot continued forward, blasting away and being blasted. The once-chromed hull was now scorched black with plasma residue. One of the cutter beam emitters had been partially melted, the top half boiled off in a string of metal into space. And the momentum carried the _Long Shot_ forward still. Into the center of the X'hirjq fleet. Into the belly of the beast. The _Long Shot_ was a mess. Circuits fried, all the control consoles were blackened with either soot or lack of power. The ship was badly damaged, but continued to move closer to the X'hirjq ships. Then, a massive plasma charge hit the bow, stopping her dead cold and causing the engine controls to short out in a massive, Star Trek-style fountain of sparks. The _Long Shot_ was trapped. *** The commander of the X'hirjq task force leaned forward in her throne, smiling. The impudent Jihaddi and his Grey vessel were now helpless. "All ships!" she ordered. "Prepare main cannon for firing! Target the Grey vessel and fire at will!" *** Sitting ducks before the four cruisers, we drifted, shields gone, power almost gone. There was truly nothing to be done. Every rat runs into a trap that it can't get out of, and this was mine. I sat back into the command chair, finally defeated. "Minerva," I said quietly, "send the message over the Jihadlink, please." replied Minerva. Then, as an unbearable white glow came from the four X'hirjq ships, she added I laughed softly, as the glow filled the _Long Shot_. "Thank you, Minerva. It was one hell of a Trip, wasn't it?" The world exploded. *** ---TRANSMISSION BEGINS--- TO: *@*.jihad.org, comcentral@egfabt.jihad.org FROM: MalDSeeker@crait1.remote.egfabt.jihad.org SUBJECT: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust To the members of the Jihad: If you are reading this, then by the time of the timestamp on this message I am most likely dead. I don't know exactly how it happened, since this is a pre-recorded message. But, suffice it to say, it was most likely a foolishly heroic demise. I never said I had any sense... Still, I figure I just reaped what I sowed. In my quarters in the EGfaBT Mars base, in the desk, third drawer on the left, is a file marked "EGfaBT-Emergency Succession Protocol" and two large bottles of seventy-year-old rum. The file should allow the Praetor to decide who is to run the Evils in the future. The rum is for the combined leadership of the Jihad. I expect the lot of you to drink to my supernatural welfare until those bottles are empty! However, I can't enforce it, so I don't know what you'll do. I figure you will, though Oh, one other thing. In the Skunk Works files, there's a blueprint marked "Anvil --Prototype." Give that to the Dirty Trick Division, would you? Be seeing you on the other side, comrades! Hail Eris, all hail Discordia Malaclypse the Seeker Professor and Director, EGfaBT Technician, Blood Jihad Skunk Works