บท 135: Knocked Out
"Here they come."
As the professor said that, the AI drones appeared right next to the asteroid we had just left. I checked the loading status of our flak missiles, which was progressing quickly. Those flak missiles were smaller than anti-ship missiles, therefore they could be loaded as packs of four into a single missile tube with their own launch envelopes.
"Wait a minute." said Mei. "Those drones can't be out in the middle of nowhere without a mothership nearby."
"What?" said the professor.
"When we encountered these drones earlier, they always had some sort of control center close by." she explained. "I'm not seeing any around, but this might just mean that they are simply hiding somewhere to ambush us."
"Maybe these specific drones are autonomous?" I asked.
"Hmm..." said the professor. "I doubt it. Admiral is probably right. The AI wouldn't load its sentient capabilities to drones as vulnerable as these. They must be controlled from somewhere near, I just... Can't detect any transmissions."
And just as he said that, an swarm of drones appeared from behind the asteroid, followed by a mothership.
"I guess there they are." Mei said, as calmly as ever, in the face of one of the most powerful enemies we were facing alone. We had hardly managed to destroy two of these motherships with a whole fleet of more than ten warships, but now... We had to face one alone. Proportionally, the odds were against us.
"What now?" the professor asked. "The moment those drones encircle us, we are done for!"
"If we learned anything from the last engagement..." I said. "It is that we need to render those drones unusable somehow. However, we are in no position to dive into a planetary atmosphere or any similar medium. The nearest planet is multiple days away, and we only have minutes."
"ECM, sir?" suggested the professor.
"Yes. Power up electronic warfare suite." I ordered.
"I know." said Mei. "The only thing we can use to our advantage here is that asteroid."
"What do we do with that?" I asked.
"Create a medium." she said. "We will smash it into small yet dangerously large pieces. We will be able to get through with our armor protecting us, but the drones won't be able to fly effectively."
"Great thinking." I said, aiming our flak torpedoes towards the asteroid.
"You will want to be quick." said the professor. "The drones are approaching despite our fully powered ECM systems."
I pushed the launch button and a couple of flak missiles were shot out of the missile tubes. They then reoriented themselves using maneuvering thrusters and activated their main engines to hit the asteroid.
"Mei, turn us around. Fly us near the asteroid." I said.
"Yes, sir!"
Mei put the ship into a rapid 180 degree rotation and started accelerating towards the asteroid... Towards the enemy.
"We will still get shot at before we can reach that asteroid." she said.
Meanwhile, our flak missiles impacted the asteroid, creating fields of small rocks flying around. I launched a few more missiles to intensify the effect.
Suddenly, a distorted, scary alarm went off.
"Missile lock!" said the professor. "The mothership is targeting us with its own missiles. We are in their engagement range!"
"The ECM seems to be of no use." I said. "I'm preparing flaks to intercept."
"Missile launch! 17 kilometers!" yelled the professor. I launched two flak missiles to intercept the incoming anti-ship missile. However, having almost no experience with warship weapon systems, I missed.
"Incoming ordnance! Brace for impact!" I shouted. Mei started a sharp turn to starboard right at that moment. The professor and I on the other hand, prepared for impact, trying to protect our heads.
A loud, low-pitch explosion sound echoed between armor plating and deck walls, followed by the noises of metal beams grinding against various other materials as they deformed and heated up. We could hear broken pieces of glass flying around on the neighboring decks. A fuse box blew up violently on the bridge, starting a fire and filling the deck with smoke. Computer consoles went dark all at once, as well as the lights.
"Bridge crew, report!" I shouted, unable to see anything (apart from the fire).
"Navigation, reporting!" said Mei.
"Sensors, reporting!" said the professor. "No injuries."
"Does anybody have a light?" I asked. The answer was a thin beam of white light from the professor's direction.
"We need to put this fire out and get the power back on ASAP!" I said. "Give me the light!"
The professor handed me a pen that had a small flashlight feature at the back of it. However, it didn't help much, other than painting white the dense smoke; seeing the walls and navigating on the bridge was out of the question. Instead, I instinctively tried to walk towards the fire.
"We need to put this fire out!" I said. "Is there any fire extinguishers around here?"
"Below my console!" said Mei.
"Follow my voice!" I told her. "Put the fi-"
My sentence was interrupted by coughs. The quality of air was getting worse and worse, and we were running out of oxygen.
"Step aside!" yelled Mei, before covering the place with a foam-like material. The fire disappeared in only a few seconds. I walked up to the barely visible fuse box. Its cover was already blown off. I tried to reach the damaged fuses with my bare hands.
"Argh! AAAH!"
"Commander!" Mei screamed worriedly.
"The fuse box... is too hot." I said, barely breathing in enough oxygen. "Come on, we need to fix the ship before the drones rip it apart! Find me a tool to get these out of the box!"
Professor Yamamari and Mei started searching around in pitch black. But I knew that this was going to take way too long... Instead of waiting for them, I reached to the fuse box with my hands again. The heat was destroying my skin, turning it into gray and black ash; but I had to endure it. I managed to pull the damaged parts out and threw them onto the floor.
"Nevermind the tool!" I said. "I need a fuse replacement! Give me something from the generic library computers!"
"I'm on it, sir!" the professor said.
"Mei, get back to your console. We should have power in a minute."
"Copy that!"
The professor came to me with a few replacement fuses he had 'stolen' from a library computer system. I carefully placed it in the fuse gaps of the bridge's power lines. Just when I placed the last fuse, suddenly, my body went numb and everything went white.
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