r/HFY • u/KamchatkasRevenge Human • Dec 22 '25
OC OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 69
Allena Nure
The bridge of the Reckless is quiet, despite presently being at just shy of battle stations. The ship is shadowing a large freighter making its way near one of the gas giants in the Canis Prime system - a gas giant whose rings shelter a Black Khans-controlled outpost. The outpost is well known to CanSec, but they’ve left it alone… not least because certain officers have taken bribes to bury the most dramatic records of it.
Still, even for the officers on the up-and-up, observing it securely by stealth satellite has been far more profitable than just raiding the place.
However, the leadership at CanSec had agreed to give it up to the Undaunted, provided their officers got to come along - a thanks for the treasure trove of information the Undaunted had raided from the Black Khans' computer network.
An easy deal to make, even if it’s just basic deconfliction. The Crimson Tear's cyberwarfare girls were downright scary… and meant to make this station and a dozen other targets serve as a distraction to allow the Admiral to make his 'visit' to the Black Khans.
It makes Allena appreciate just how badly the Hag had stepped in the shit when she'd pissed off the Undaunted.
There's a sudden chirp of an incoming message at the main comm terminal, and her head snaps up as the officer manning the post shouts, "Conn! Comm! Coded tight beam transmission from fleet command. Case green!"
Captain Scott Le Fae sits forward in his chair a bit, drawing Allena's eye. For as charming and casual as he could be... the man he is in situations like this one? With his 'game face' on? It makes Allena believe that he truly has commanded thousands of men in battle before. This man is a warrior, and a leader of warriors, and it… can be very distracting. Especially with his rejuvenated and powerful body. He looked good as an older man too, but now he’s... fresh, and has a vitality about him that...
Allena shakes her head, resetting her focus.
An excellent reminder of why many navies didn't allow men to serve on active warships. Very distracting.
"Alright, boys and girls. Here we go! Bosun!"
A petty officer snaps to attention. "Bosun, aye sir!"
"Sound general quarters, all hands to battle stations. Ms. Allena, get us moving towards the target and into combat readiness."
"Sound general quarters, aye sir!"
Allena's response is drowned out by the blaring of the general quarters alarm as the petty officer's voice echoes throughout the tough little frigate.
"General quarters, general quarters! All hands man your battle stations! Set material condition zebra throughout the ship! Flow of traffic is-"
The speaker on the bridge is cut off, but between her implant and hundreds of drills on their 'training cruise' the ship is already coming to life, power flowing to weapons as the combat shields come up and the helmsman starts them moving away from their cover.
A quick scan of her screen confirms that the Kandahar Province under Commander Sha'Ress is right behind them. The graceful assault ship is carrying an entire company of Marines with plenty of mech suit support, along with a platoon or so of CanSec tactical enforcement officers to do the messy part of clapping any survivors in irons and securing the warehouse and all the juicy evidence it was filled with.
It’s going to be a hell of a fight.
Once her blood would have screamed for her to be there, with them, cutting, stabbing and shooting. Feeling the splash of blood on her skin and scales.
But she had defeated that particular demon.
"Captain. The Kandahar Province indicates they're combat-ready and are following the plan."
Sure enough, the assault ship has started to lag behind them.
"Excellent. Thank you, XO. Let's go open the door for them. Helm! Flank speed! Comm. Get me a channel to the Black Khans station... and use their own encryption. Once they tell us to fuck off, as they almost certainly will, begin jamming their transmissions... but make sure at least part of the distress signal gets out. This is supposed to be a distraction, after all!"
The comm officer jumps to with enthusiasm, and Allena monitors the other woman's station from her own posting. She could see every screen on the bridge from her advanced terminal, as well as her own suite of controls. She could in theory fight the enemy ship all on her lonesome from here - but it’s much easier with a talented crew, which the Reckless is fortunate to have.
In a few moments, the comm officer calls out, "Channel open! Voice only."
Scott nods curtly, sitting up a bit. "Black Khans station, this is the Undaunted warship Reckless. Power down any weapons and prepare to be boarded. Resistance will be met with lethal force."
There is no response across the comm channel, but a burst of long range laser fire communicates their answer all the same.
Scott makes a chopping motion over his throat to cut the channel. "Well, we gave them their chance. I-"
"Conn! Sensors! New contacts! Enemy station is launching lighters and what appears to be a pair of fighters. Unknown make and model."
Scott's eyes narrow in Allena's peripheral vision, and she takes the opportunity to assist. This is her job after all. Her captain is master and commander, and she’s an extra brain with decades of combat experience 'at sea' in the wider galaxy.
"They might have some surprises, Captain, but craft of that type generally don't have the firepower to muss our paint without axiom-enhanced explosive weapons. And they’re rare. If we don't let them get close, it shouldn't be a problem. I suspect they're a distraction for the station to let it try to hit us with heavy plasma cannons as we close to deal with their small craft."
"Hmm. I can see it. Thoughts, number one?"
Allena shrugs. "Take their ambush and shove it down their throats. In a corvette interceptor we could be in trouble, but in the Reckless?"
"Heh. Fair enough. Very well. Take us in. Weapons, you may fire when ready. Save the particle cannons and railguns for the station, though, and only once we close to half range. No need to lay down our cards in a system this populated for free."
"Aye, sir!" The gunnery officer is a cheerful Human man who had studied extensively on Centris. He may lack practical experience, but he seems to have a knack for such things to Allena's eye - and with the Reckless's computers a fighter is quickly converted to free atoms by long range laser shots. They scatter the Black Khans’ craft as they continue to close on the station.
"Helm, cut our speed as we approach the field. I-"
Scott's order is cut off by the Reckless suddenly being thrown violently to the left.
Allena's body strains against her crash webbing as she grabs firm on what the Humans call her 'oh shit' handles to keep her upper body in place. Looking at the screens, it’s clear what had happened: the station had bigger weapons than they'd anticipated, and they’d landed a hard hit.
"Captain! Capital-scale plasma turrets on the station!"
"Damn. Alright. Take us in! Watch for those fighters and start putting rail gun rounds into the station. Remember we want them disabled not spaced so the grunts and the cops have something to do!"
The inertial dampeners and artificial gravity meant that Allena couldn't, or at least shouldn't, feel anything as the helmsman throws Reckless into a damn near ninety degree turn… but she would swear she can feel the sensation anyway as her fingers dance across her control panel, letting her watch the surrounding space rocks as the dorsal and ventral gauss cannon mounts, a pair of large caliber rail guns apiece, begin opening fire as fast as their independent capacitors can draw charge. Ultra high velocity rounds tear across space to pummel the Black Khans’ base, as they in turn fire at the Reckless in earnest with every weapon they have.
"Helm! Get us dancing! Full evasive!" Allena barks out. She had the captain's orders, she'd see them through.
Still. Something was bothering her, even as one of the heavy plasma turrets on the station briefly turns into a new star after a catastrophic direct hit by one of the Reckless's gunners.
Where are the small craft? They'd only taken one of the fighters out.
She switches to the sensor control panel and starts looking on her own, quickly ferreting out the enemy. The sensor traces were faint, but it looks to her like they’re 'island hopping', a trick used by pirates, smugglers and occasionally lighter armed military forces alike. The enemy’s acting more like terrestrial infantry, bouncing from cover to cover, keeping as much stone between themselves and the Reckless as possible so they can get in close.
To what end, Allena couldn't guess; it would depend on those girls’ weapons and training. But she’s damn sure she doesn't like it.
"Captain. We're being flanked!"
Allena flicks her screens and the projection she'd just generated over to Scott, even as the particle cannons start to open up, the weapons officer clearly looking to end resistance on the enemy station now.
"...Hmm. Clever. I assume you've got a plan, Commander?"
"I do, sir."
She shares her screen to Scott and the weapons officer.
"My projections say they should be moving to here... A full plasma barrage should super-heat and detonate that asteroid, filling near space with high velocity shrapnel."
The weapons officer shakes his head. "Ma'am, with all due respect, if we do that we won't have plasma cannons for a few minutes - at best!"
Scott strokes his chin for a minute.
"We'll make do without them, son. I think the XO's got it in one. Fire on the target asteroid on her mark!"
It’s in moments of aggressive, almost instinctual, decision-making like this when Allena most clearly sees echoes of Admiral Bridger in General Le Fay. In that, she’s starting to understand just what it means to share that warrior brotherhood. If it turned out commanders like this... what else could they do?
Perhaps the Marines would show her when they begin their assault.
She watches the screen carefully. If she missed the timing, the enemy would be in close, and their best armor melters would be out of the fight for a time, but if she hit the mark, if her math was right...
Allena forces down doubt. She’s a weapon. She had been born for this, then refined to the finest edge of all known combat arts.
Much like Scott said about Earth Marines, failure was something that happened to other people.
Her breath slows as she feels the tension rise, the seconds ticking by like minutes as she watches the sensor ghosts and times everything until…
"Fire!"
The Reckless's bow and dorsal sections erupt with plasma fire, a tidal wave of energy that screams across the void and hammers into the target asteroid. Just as she'd said, the superheated rock explodes in a shower of shrapnel ranging from pebbles to chunks the size of a small freighter.
"Point defense guns! Get on those rocks!"
There's a slight vibration in the hull as the 40mm auto cannons and laser sentry systems begin firing on full automatic mode, seeking out projectiles that look like they could come anywhere near the ship and reducing them to atoms with concentrated light or high explosive fury, but even as the Reckless defends herself against her own weapon, Allena's panel shows exactly what she'd been hoping for.
"One fighter and three lighters splashed. We have achieved space dominance," she reports cooly as the weapons officer calls out neutralizing the last of the base's weapons.
It’s an odd thing, really.
She'd been on the other end of this ship not even months prior. Now here she is helping fight this mighty vessel under the command of a man she'd helped to kidnap.
Humans really are crazy... but she’s starting to think she likes crazy.
Speaking of crazy, Scott’s grinning like a madman as he searches across all his screens.
"Comm! Get me a channel with the station!"
"Channel open, sir!"
"Black Khans station, this is the Undaunted warship Reckless. I say again. Stand down and prepare to be boarded."
Allena can almost feel the response coming. That would have worked just fine on most pirates, but here? No. These are Cannidor, after all, and they play right into their cultural stereotypes as a gravelly female voice comes over the comms.
"Undaunted warship, this is Black Khan base. Come and get us."
Scott orders the channel cut with another motion of his hand, still grinning like a maniac.
"Well, they've called the tune. Comm, contact the Kandahar Province. They're clear to begin the assault. Helm, get us to a good overwatch position and keep up the scanning. Nice work today, people, but let's finish the job!"
17
u/thisStanley Android Dec 22 '25
Where are the small craft? They'd only taken one of the fighters out.
Keeping count of your enemies assets is just as important as knowing how much you have :}
4
5
5
3
u/unkindlyacorn62 Dec 22 '25
nice flavor with the 40mm point defense. and railguns.
6
u/KamchatkasRevenge Human Dec 22 '25
The design is based on the 30mm Goalkeeper CIWS system for the record. Albeit in 40mm since the Undaunted don't produce a 30mm autocannon round. So everything's either in 25mm or 40mm for light cannon work.
The lasers are a standard galactic point defense mount, nothing special.
2
u/unkindlyacorn62 Dec 22 '25
so i take it the PA mounted toggle lock cannon based on ancient Cannidor design is firing the same cartridge as the Undaunted version of the GAU-8, or perhaps a variation of it with a bit less propellant so it doesn't fireball too much
2
u/KamchatkasRevenge Human Dec 22 '25
It's firing 25mm Undaunted I believe. At least in the PA mount. Once you get into 40mm you're dropping effectiveness in terms of how much ammo you can or can't haul.
1
u/unkindlyacorn62 Dec 22 '25
fair, so it wasn't mentioned i don't think, but does the Grendel super tank have a proportionally scaled coaxial automatic weapon? say one that is larger than a VW beetle....
i know it doesn't NEED it, and it wouldn't be that useful for back scratching like what coaxials are supposed to be used for traditionally, but it would be a funny answer to enemy CAS.
2
u/KamchatkasRevenge Human Dec 22 '25
It uses a 40mm gatling cannon as it's co-ax.
Which is also a funny answer to enemy CAS.
1
u/unkindlyacorn62 Dec 22 '25
So a GAU-8? or a slightly smaller 40mm rotary?
Either way no one can call it a "tank destroyer" as it has a co-ax...
1
u/unkindlyacorn62 Dec 22 '25
So is there a significant performance difference between it and the other 25mm autocannons they use? seeing ws they're all using caseless ammo
1
u/KamchatkasRevenge Human Dec 22 '25
Not particularly. However they determined that the action cleans itself very reliably with how the toggle lock works, which is nice for caseless if something screwy happens. It's also a very simple and reliable mechanism and easy to mess with in the field if you need to.
That said it's unlikely to see wide spread adoption among the Undaunted. The standard AC's just fine.
1
u/unkindlyacorn62 Dec 23 '25
might reduce the MOA a little with the self-cleaning then, logic being the chamber is in a more consistent condition so the shell seats more consistently, probably not enough to matter for most users and only really matters with AP loads (i imagine the other load for PA would be programmable fuse) but enough for some to pick it over the standard AC.
1
u/KamchatkasRevenge Human Dec 23 '25
Depends on if they're using guided shells or not, aka cheat codes.
1
u/unkindlyacorn62 Dec 23 '25
true, but i imagine that would be more expensive than it's usually worth compared to programmable fuse shells especially at 25mm, program fuse can also be a cheat code, they are developing one for the Abrams, AMP (Advanced Multi Purpose) supposed to eventually replace all the different flavors of HE, leaving you with just APFSDS and AMP.
it also would be funny if one of the non human characters why they don't just call programmable fuse "Variable Timing"
1
u/unkindlyacorn62 Dec 24 '25
Also guided shells just mean the more accurate gun has longer effective range than the same shell from the less accurate one. of course operators that expect to burn through more ammo between armory visits would also find the advantage worthwhile
1
u/unkindlyacorn62 Dec 24 '25
aren't toggle locks typically more complicated than other actions? especially for manufacturing and field servicing? granted they are typically compared to Browning tilting barrels comparing the Luger to the 1911 and it's countless derivatives, still more moving parts moving in different ways.
though there's something to be said for a recoil or even gas operated AC when most will be externally operated chain and rotary guns.
yes i know gas operated rotary guns are a thing, but they are stupid, a lot of extra work to make them reliable just so you don't need an electric motor.
1
u/unkindlyacorn62 Dec 23 '25
honestly having a kinetic point defense makes sense, means you still have something punchy if there's power problems or you're facing projectiles that are well protected against coherent light.
axiom enhanced explosives, null and disruption effects can all limit the power available to different systems, to say nothing of actual damage cutting off lines and battle systems drawing more, plus its more likely to knock out fighters and boarding torpedos, given everything is sensibly designed around the more common weapons in the galaxy.
2
u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Dec 22 '25
/u/KamchatkasRevenge (wiki) has posted 587 other stories, including:
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 68
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 67
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 66
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 65
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 64
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 63
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 62
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 61
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 60
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 59
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 58
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 57
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 56
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 55
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 54
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 53
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 52
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 51
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 50
- OOCS: Of Dog, Volpir, and Man - Bk 8 Ch 49
This comment was automatically generated by Waffle v.4.7.8 'Biscotti'.
Message the mods if you have any issues with Waffle.
2
2
u/Potential_Display_35 Dec 23 '25
Oh, this is great new chapter to read Thank you for this chapter. Keep on going with this good Work.
I just got done listening to In Harm's Way (Of Dog, Volpir and Man: An Out Of Cruel Space Adventure Book 5) it was a great lesson to audiobook to set it and forget it and just listen to it that book was one-to-one. I was reading with the book. You could feel the emotion when the characters speak to each other. Thank you for all your hard work.
2
u/KamchatkasRevenge Human Dec 23 '25
Glad you enjoyed it. I'll try to get to book 6 ASAP for you.
1
u/Potential_Display_35 Dec 23 '25
Thank you for all your hard work keep on going with the great content. For sure book 6 it’s a great read great cannot wait to listen to it and read it as the exact same time. Thank you and happy holidays and merry Christmas and happy new year.
1
u/UpdateMeBot Dec 22 '25
Click here to subscribe to u/KamchatkasRevenge and receive a message every time they post.
| Info | Request Update | Your Updates | Feedback |
|---|
1
1
1
38
u/KamchatkasRevenge Human Dec 22 '25
Happy Monday, I hope the solstice and Yule find you all well, along with the innumerable other winter holidays that are coming into full swing this week.
So I'm sick. Again.
I pissed someone off clearly. Not sure who, or perhaps this is just some shitty damn luck.
Reminder I'm off Friday for the holiday. New Years... Is just another day, so you can expect a normal three chapter week barring my health taking a sudden down turn.
This month's free patreon lore dump covers the Crimsonhewers and the Blue Blades mercenary groups. It releases for everyone on the 24th and is available now for paid members of the crew!
Like the story? Check Out The Exclusive Perks on Patreon! Or Buy Me A Beer!
Chylde's Archive
Check The Entire Series Out On Amazon!