Confidence

Rolling his multiple sets of shoulders Ponif settled into the fighter, she was a beauty of modern engineering. Quad plasma thrusters with an antimatter injector for an extra kick when needed, adaptive g-force negation generators so he could pull maneuvers that would have otherwise been impossible. Four Ionic plasma cannons tunable to multiple frequencies for maximum damage, as well as two regenerative missile pods. So long as he had energy the missiles would be replicated at a rate of one every ninety seconds.

She also possessed the newest transphasic adaptive plasma channeled redirected shields allowing her to absorb shots from Federation dreadnoughts and keep on kicking.

Ponif appreciated her technical aspects, but the most important thing was that she looked. Even hanging inside of her cradle of the docking bay she looked threatening, like a predator lazily watching the prey pass it by confident that when hungry it would take no effort at all to feed.

Switching her on Ponif sighed as the gel cradle came to life cocooning him and linking him into the craft. Putting his hands forward Ponif gripped the two joysticks and settled his other hands on the control switches.

Ponif was not one to brag, but he was one of the best fighter pilots in the Federation. A survivor of more than a hundred engagements he could take down any enemy with ease. So this was just another day in the line of duty for him.

“How long until the drop?” he growled into the comm.

The controller up in the secondary bridge responded, “We’re three minutes from drop. Intel suggests that this will be an easier mission than normal. The aliens have only three small destroy class ships in our path. No fighter squadrons have yet to be identified.”

“No fighters?” growled Ponif.

“None yet, we’ve seen this tactic before Ponif they are probably hiding somewhere in the atmosphere or in one of the ships.”

Ponif grunted in agreement and cut the comm link. Closing his eyes he cleared his head and waited for the launch.

The alien species had not yielded to the Federations demands for tribute, which as a younger race in the galactic community was expected. When the Federation had threatened to force the issues the Humans had simply laughed and dared them to attack. Arrogance and disrespect of the highest degree.

They were young and arrogant, so a lesson in the ways of the universe was in order.

Ponif hardly cared, all he wanted was another fight another situation where his skills and the limits of his ship would be tested. So far he had yet to come across any species that challenged him. He doubted the Humans would be able too, he had participated in attacks against far stronger enemies in the past.

“Attention all squadrons we are dropping out in ten seconds, prepare to launch,” came the general announcement to all ships cradled in the bay.

Ponif opened his eyes and waited.

Exactly ten seconds later he was launched, the magnetic rails of the ship throwing him out into space in the blink of an eye and with enough velocity that were it not for the dampening systems he would have been a smear of biological matter on the back wall of his fighter.

Twisted the controls and ensuring that nothing was amiss with his ship Ponif looked out at the world and the enemies. It was a blue world like so many life bearing planets were and from space Ponif could see the lights of their cities, nothing particularly impressive or special.

Silhouetted against those lights were the Human’s ships. Small and unimpressive, with barely any thought put into their design they were floating rectangular masses.

“Alright, everyone form up behind me. We’re going to show this primitives that it is futile to refuse the Federation!” shouted Ponif over the comm. He was trying to keep the boredom out of his voice, the higher ups expected all combat footage to show how enthusiastic the solders of the Federation were but to be honest the constant yelling was a pain. Ponif would much rather crush the simple primitives in silence and then go back to the sims where he would face an actual challenge.

“Hoorah!” came the response from his squad with an equal amount of bravado.

The comm crackled, and a mechanical translated voice came over the line.

“This is the United Human Navy, you have twenty seconds to signal a retreat or we will destroy you.”

Ponif chuckled, at least they had guts which was more than could be said for some of the other primitives, most simply rolled over and surrendered when the forward operating fleet of the Federation dropped into their home system.

“Any fighters?” asked Ponif.

“Nothing,” said control.

Cracking his thirty four knuckles Ponif quickly began selecting targets on the primitive ships. The engines, the shields, the bridge, and any other critical systems that he could identify.

Five seconds after this fight started it would be over.

Cruising towards the human ships Ponif did several lazy aileron rolls.

Once again the mechanical translated voice filtered over the comm.

“This is your final warning retreat now or we will be forced to destroy you,” said the Humans.

Ponif ignored them, he was almost in optimal range.

“Everyone weapons free, it doesn’t look like they are sending anyone to say hello, we’re going to aid the cruisers by targeting critical systems,” said Ponif.

The squad responded and began to spread out.

It was that simple maneuver that spared Ponif, one moment he had a squad of over fifty fighters and an entire wing of over two hundred. The next moment that number had been halved. The ship nearest him in the formation exploded, several pieces of debris impacted his own.

Ponif felt the jolt as his brain poured hormone stimulants and neurotransmitters into his system. He had no idea what had just happened, how half of his men had just been eliminated.

“Evasive maneuvers, press forward!” shouted Ponif as he launched flares from his own vessel to try and confuse whatever weapon it had been that had destroyed the other ships.

His own quick action once again saved his life as a moment later another barrage destroyed the remaining ships, and barely missed his own. Whatever the weapon was it clipped him and completely destroyed his power generation and tactical systems. Inside the fighter all of the systems died leaving Ponif dead in space.

For a moment he was stunned, not completely sure of what had just happened. The humans had in the opening moments of the engagement completely eliminated the fighter wings of the Federation fleet.

Drifting now with his instruments dead Ponif looked back at the human vessels, they were advancing forwards guns firing primitive kinetic rounds. After another moment a blinding flash consumed the vessel Ponif had launched from.

Crying out in pain Ponif threw his hands up over his eyes, but even then he could see the ghostly image of his many fingers as the light penetrated his flesh.

The primitives were using uncontained atomics!

Opening his eyes and trying to clear them Ponif looked out at the Federation fleet, or rather what was left of it.

The larger ships were broken and floating venting atmosphere, the smaller escorts had been completely vaporized.

“God’s help us all,” breathed Ponif as he looked out at the destruction.

He had been confident they were the hunters, the strongest animals. The humans were above that all though, they had no use for intimidation. They knew they would win.

An animal will always lose to a gun no matter how ferocious its roar.

Writer:
Weerdo5255

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Good Training – Survival Part 1

You may also want to read Pyrophytes in The Deathworlders series. Same story, different angles. Date point: 14y 7d AV Planet Akyawentuo, The Ten’Gewek Protectorate, Near 3Kpc Arm Professor Daniel Hurt “You want me to read it by next week?” Julian mopped the sweat from his face and bounced loosely in place. “What was it

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Rising Titans – Chapter 45

-7 Hours CHRONT THE CANADA “More contacts!” said Arik as she flashed every monitor on the bridge a bright red. Stagg glanced up at the monitor, “How many more?” “I’m counting!” “You’re counting!?” A grainy image of the approaching Empire patrol vessel was quickly displayed, a small box around it. Additional boxes quickly filled the

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 52: Autoimmune Part 2

Date Point: 16y2m AV Alien Quarter, Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches Nofl Leemu had become unresponsive. Nofl’s quarantine facility had alerted him after the patient had been anomalously still for twenty minutes, and the reason why became obvious upon a quick inspection of the cell: Leemu was sprawled on his back, staring blissfully up at

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Good Training – April Fool’s

13y 3m 29d AV One-Fang workhouse, Alien Quarter, Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches Sergeant Regaari (Dexter) of Clan SOR One of the best things about the humans was that they had a springtime holiday dedicated to mischief. Before them, only the Gao could claim to celebrate such a thing and it was one of the

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 52: Autoimmune Part 1

Date Point: 16y2m AV Alien Quarter, Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches Nofl Nofl’s lab was spacious, but inevitably finite. When it contained an alarming number of alarmed Humans, not to mention one particularly sculpted canine and a Gaoian brownie who was doing his best not to loom at everyone… well, there were times when Nofl

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 51: Anticlimax Part 5

Date Point: 16y2m AV Folctha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches Allison Buehler After a lifetime of helicopter parenting, Tristan and Ramsey seemed addicted to every opportunity they could find to do something their mother would have scooted them away from. And who could blame them? Amanda had never managed to get her head around the idea

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Rising Titans – Chapter 44

9 Years, 6 Months, 28 Days After Eridani Landing Deep Space The Russia shuddered again as the engines slowly powered down and the ship slid out of the red blue haze that was the tachyon FTL corridor. James blinked several times trying to clear the haze from his eyes as the regular black background of

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 51: Anticlimax Part 4

Date Point: 16y1m AV Dataspace adjacent to Mrwrki Station Entity The Entity understood the concept of boredom in an academic, abstract way. It could even vaguely summon up Ava’s memories of being bored. But understanding the idea and actually feeling the emotion were two different things. The closest it could get was the sensation of

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 51: Anticlimax Part 3

Date Point: 16y2w AV Air Force One, somewhere over Asia, Earth President Arthur Sartori “…You want to give us a Farthrow generator.” Daar’s image was janky and low-resolution thanks to the vagaries of current wormhole comms, but the audio was a lot clearer now. Technology marched onwards. “It’s loaded up on a train and ready

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Good Training – Pecking Order

13y, 8m AV Operator’s Barracks, HMS Sharman, Folctha, Cimbrean Officer Regaari (Dexter) of Clan Whitecrest “I got an idea, Regaari.” Regaari flicked his ears forward in annoyance. “This again?” “Well, yeah. I gotta win that bet, Cousin!” Regaari duck-nodded wearily. Not long after Daar had received the SACRED STRANGER briefing, he’d sulked off to think

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Good Training – The Champions – Tidying Up

Messier 24 Mission day: 3 Sergeant Daar (Tigger) The third day was always when things settled into routine. Daar didn’t really know why, ‘cuz that was prol’ly some complicated psychology stuff (maybe he should read up?) but he did know how it worked, practically speaking. Daar always pondered morning thoughts like that when he was

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 51: Anticlimax Part 2

Date Point: 16y2w AV Weaver dropship, Gaoian space Sergeant Ian “Hillfoot” Wilde “So in all the excitement, we clean forgot about these things. That’s what you’re telling me.” Champion Meereo made a sound that was half a sigh and half a chitter. “…That’s more-or-less exactly right, yes. We had… well, bigger priorities.” Wilde had to

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Rising Titans – Chapter 43

9 Years, 6 Months, 28 Days After Eridani Landing Bellona “Ready?” asked Alpha from where he sat on top of the Captain’s chair. “I’m good!” said Red from where he sat at the controls for the ship. It hadn’t taken much to convince him to pilot the vessel. James glanced down at his own console

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 51: Anticlimax Part 1

Date Point: 16y AV Yukon–Koyukuk, Alaska, USA, Earth Zane Reid The cold didn’t hurt anymore. At first, it had been like forcing his way through a wall made of knives that cut through his clothes. Zane’s every breath had blinded him as it billowed and steamed in the air, and when he’d experimentally licked his

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 50: Counterattack – Trigger Part 5

Date Point: 16y AV Camp Tebbutt Biodrone Internment Facility, Yukon–Koyukuk, Alaska, USA, Earth Hugh Johnson Snow. Of course, snow in January in Alaska was hardly surprising, and this one threatened to be heavy. At first, Hugh had thought it was probably just an seasonable dusting that’d add a couple of inches to the foot or

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Fight!

I had made my way through the tournament, but most of my matches had been won by the skin of my teeth, and I had only the advantage of being evolved from a pursuit predator to thank for it. Our great endurance had been the one boon that had kept me going, and I was

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 50: Counterattack – Trigger Part 4

Date Point: 15y 10m 1w AV HMS Violent, Rvzrk System, Domain Space The ground battle churned on for days. That was the problem with Hunters. There was no surrender involved, it was a kill-or-be-killed fight where smashing their will to engage in war simply didn’t achieve enough. Any Hunter left alive would just keep murdering

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Good Training – The Champions – Doom and Gloom Part 4

He awoke to a pleasant smell. “…Eggs?” Hoeff detangled himself from Natalie and the sheets and stumbled towards the kitchen. Daar was busy in front of the comparatively little stove and fridge, humming some terrible Gaoian tune to himself. Seriously, their music was like Chinese opera with extra pain. Some Humans liked it, though…but “atonal”

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Rising Titans – Chapter 42

9 Years, 6 Months, 15 Days After Eridani Landing The [Singer] The explosion hit and [Vann] watched at the lights on the main hologram and different panels flashed a blinding white light, before dying and plunging the entire bridge of the [Singer] into darkness. “What were we supposed to do?” asked someone near the weapons

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Infestation

Day 1. I’ve made it on board the human trading vessel! They didn’t detect my presence, and I’ve managed to smuggle myself into their engineering bay, and disguised myself within a cluster of cables! My small, serpentine body makes me indistinguishable from a thin, grayish cable, and the Humans won’t notice my existence until it

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 50: Counterattack – Trigger Part 1

Date Point: 15y 10m AV Camp Tebbutt Biodrone Internment Facility, Yukon–Koyukuk, Alaska, USA, Earth Hugh Johnson Camp Tebbutt wasn’t actually a bad place to live, if you didn’t count the fact that it was essentially a prison for innocent victims. Hugh understood why he was there, and why he couldn’t leave… but after eleven years,

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Good Training – The Champions – Doom and Gloom Part 3

Firth Regaari chittered, “It is difficult to imagine you ‘humbled,’ Righteous.” “Heh,” Firth chuckled. “You do know most of my attitude is straight fuckin’ bullshit, right? Adam and John know why.” Regaari looked over at John, who shrugged massively. “He’s a scary dude. Being ridiculous kinda takes the edge off, y’know?” Regaari duck-nodded. He was

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Rising Titans – Chapter 41

9 Years, 6 Months, 13 Days After Eridani Landing Jikse Moving down the hallway Diana paused at the double doors, carefully she moved forwards into it’s threshold and they slid open. A woman in an orange smock looked up from her Comm for a moment, and then going back to look at it did a

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The Good Samaritan

I felt a white-hot pain in my back as I was stabbed. Once, twice and then three times. I fell to the ground clutching my new openings, and for a moment I couldn’t grasp what had just happened. I had walked through an alley as a shortcut back home, and then suddenly someone had grabbed

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 50: Counterattack – Homefront Part 6

Date Point: 15y9m3w AV Mrwrki Station, Erebor System, Unexplored Space Darcy “Does it seem… different to you lately?” “What?” “The Entity. It’s actin’ different, dude, I swear it is.” Darcy sighed and set aside her work as Lewis sat down. She was sitting drinking a Moroccan Mint tea in the station’s rec lounge, with its

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Rising Titans – Chapter 40

9 Years, 6 Months, 13 Days After Eridani Landing Jikse Popping the restraints off of her legs Diana swung herself off of the table, the two class A’s still in their isolation suits were pounding at the door of the room the three of them were in. “It’s out! Open the door!” shouted the man

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Good Training – The Champions – Doom and Gloom Part 2

Master Sergeant Christian (Righteous) Firth The end of the movie came and the ladies were fast asleep and prolly too tired to head home with any comfort. The other bros were asleep, too, and Firth was tangled up with them pretty good. Oh well, both ‘Base and ‘Horse were heavy-ass sleepers and only danger or

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Hell

Hell. It’s a completely Human concept. The concept of a realm of eternal torture, to which you are sent depending on the whims of one deity or another, is something only found in Human fiction. And it’s not an isolated occurrence. Almost every human culture since the dawn of humanity itself has had it in

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The Deathworlders – Chapter 50: Counterattack – Homefront Part 4

Date Point: 15y9m2w AV HMS Sharman (HMNB Folctha), Cimbrean, The Far Reaches Senior Master Sergeant Christian (“Righteous”) Firth “Hey, fuckers! Guess what hit the newsstand today!” Adam looked up from his needlework for a second and raised an eyebrow. “Imma guess Coombes’ centerfold spread with Ava?” Firth deflated, somewhat flummoxed that ‘Horse had stolen his

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