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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3658642" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 494: Orbital Defense“Oh, Loki...” Marix said softly as she ran a hand along the nose of her ship. She shook her head and sighed, “You didn’t have to do this...”    [Of course I did.] there was a slight tension in Loki’s normally jovial voice. [If the Empress’ ship will not step forward, why should anyone else? And it is not the first time.]    Marix turned to look down Loki’s body, towards the swept back ‘wings’. Or rather, ‘wing’, as she was on his port side and couldn’t see around him. But there, attached beneath the ‘wing’ was a Jendari laser cannon. There was another one on his other side. They were strong weapons, roughly the strength of a turbolaser cannon.    “Finally got your eye on a mate, then?” she managed to force a grin onto her face as she patted his nose and started to walk over to the open hatch.    [Um...what?] he was so cute when he was confused and terrified by things like that.    The grin became devious as she stepped into the hatch and it closed behind her. As Marix headed to the cockpit, she idly let a hand trail across the bulkhead along the way, “Can’t think of any other reason why you’d be first unless you were trying to impress a girl. Course, even then, you’d probably be last to the show. Always were slow...”    [Hey!!!] the bulkhead actually had a slight tremor run through it.    Marix allowed herself another laugh before she arrived in the cockpit and had a seat. Time to get to work. Her voice changed completely when she asked, “How long do we have?”    [About five minutes if the Jendari are right.] even Loki’s voice shifted from wounded to business-mode. He was a lot like her when it came to getting things done. Besides, this was going to be different. Something that hadn’t happened ever before. There wasn’t going to be much time to be anything but serious.    She only nodded to acknowledge his comment, and was already taking the controls and moving Loki out of the Jendari ship’s hangar. When Loki was out in Alraxia’s orbit, Marix could see other ships, Kanyaks, moving in a large formation not far from the Jendari ship. Those would be the Knights and the other ships outfitted with weapons. The Jendari had done the best they could in the limited time there was. They would have to hold off the Mrrakesh for only a short time before more Jendari ships arrived. Once that happened, Alraxia would be safe enough...but it was going to be a tough fight until then.    So Marix had a plan. It was rather simple, but effective enough. Most of the Kanyaks would simply do their best to help the Jendari hold the Mrrakesh from getting to Alraxia’s surface, which they would undoubtedly be attempting. But Marix, and a few others both former Tam’Day’U and well trained Knights, would board the Mrrakesh ships and try to disable them from the inside. She’d done similar before. It was doable...but would be more dangerous than ever. The Mrrakesh would be ready for that kind of attack, and the ships would have very large troop compliments.    But that wouldn’t stop her. It never did. And now Alraxia was in the crosshairs and her children were right there, too. Failure wasn’t even a possibility. The Mrrakesh had to be held back at all costs. It would be nice to have an actual fleet there, but this wasn’t like fighting the Vong at the Gateway. The Jendari would help, but they were definitely a different kind of fighting force. It would have to be enough, though.    Marix closed her eyes a moment to calm her breathing. When she opened them, she looked out towards the outer reaches of the Alraxian system. Beyond Alraxia, herself, there were only three other planets in the system. One close in towards the system’s star, and two others in deep er orbits. None of them were habitable, and only Alraxian had any moons. But all Marix could see was deep space...exactly where the Mrrakesh would come from.    [Did you ever consider comming the New Republic?] Loki was bad with silences, especially when waiting on something like this.    “No, I didn’t,” Marix shook her head, sitting back a bit and trying to keep as relaxed as was possible, “They wouldn’t come anyway. They have their own war to fight. This is ours...and only ours.”    [But the Vong...]    “Are not directly attacking us,” Marix finished for him, “Even then, they wouldn’t come if we asked. It’s a big galaxy, Loki, and they have a great many more systems to defend than our corner of space when we really don’t even want them here.”    As best as a starship could, Loki sighed. He didn’t like what was coming. Marix didn’t, either, but she knew it was necessary. And she knew they would survive. Ket had been worse than these Mrrakesh. He knew the Alraxians weaknesses much more intimately. The Mrrakesh would be working with their thousand years of prejudice, and Marix could use that against them.    One Alraxian couldn’t take an entire Mrrakesh ship.    The Mrrakesh were warriors. Powerful warriors twice the strength of even the greatest of the Alraxians. They even had weapons specifically designed to kill Alraxians now: swords that left pieces of metal within the victim to make sure they died when attempting to remorph. Not to mention that the Alraxians just weren’t trained to fight at all. It would be a quick, decisive battle for the Mrrakesh.    The Alraxian Empress wouldn’t risk her own life to fight on the front lines, just as the Mrrakesh leader wouldn’t.    Or at least, that was all how it was supposed to be.    But Marix was the front line, despite the objections of the Jendari and any Alraxian, including the Knights that were her guards, that saw her before she reached Loki. But her mind was made up. She could fight Mrrakesh. She could kill Mrrakesh. She the best trained warrior in all of the Empire and the most experience; the only Tam’Day’U to actually survive as one for as long as she did without being killed on a mission. And not only that, but she was the only Alraxian in the entire Empire that didn’t have a thing to worry about from metal. It was ironic, of course, but that was one of her greatest strengths, and it came from another Empire...that horrible Galactic Empire that had captured her and cloned her with some extra modifications here and there.    Too bad for the Mrrakesh. Those scouts wouldn’t have been able to report that little anomaly back before they were killed, which meant she still had that element of surprise.    [Marix...] Loki’s voice was soft, as if he was doing his best not to bother her.    She looked up to the viewport and saw it. Or rather, them. The distinct, geometrical shape of the Mrrakesh Battle Cruisers that she’d learned very well while defending the Gateway. Good. They didn’t bring anything else...or not right away, at least.    Through the Alraxian Network, she sent a nudge of encouragement to all of the Knights that were there aboard their Kanyaks. This was it. This would be a fight like Alraxia had never seen. And Marix knew that many of those Kanyaks who had volunteered to have weapons grafted to their bodies would die. Those peaceful ships that were such wonderful companions were going against their deepest beliefs to protect Alraxia, a planet that wasn’t their own.    It was a testament to the bravery and loyalty of the Kanyaks. It was also something that Marix was not going to let happen in vain.    “Loki,” her voice was hard and cold now, as she gripped the controls tightly and started angling Loki towards the Mrrakesh ships, “Figure out which one’s their lead ship and lets get aboard before they know what’s hit them.”    [Already on it...] Loki sounded distracted, which was a good sign. As they led the charge in towards the distant ships, he added a vital piece of information that she’d neglected to ask, or even check for herself, on. [There are seven Mrrakesh Cruisers, Marix. I believe I’ve found the lead, though.]    Seven.    They were thirty seven lightly armed Kanyaks, a single Jendari warship, and two more Jendari ships to arrive soon, whenever that was, against seven well armed Mrrakesh Cruisers and probably smaller support fighters. Vastly outnumbered, but that was expected.    Marix put that all aside and leaned forward in her seat, putting all of her focus into keeping herself and Loki alive, and keeping the Network strong. Panic was the last thing they all needed, “Plot the fastest course you can to that ship and let me know if anything changes.”    [Of course.] Loki, while still sounded distracted, had that oddly happy tone to it that he got sometimes. Then, just to confirm that he was insane, added. [Haven’t had fun like this in years!]</blockquote>

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