To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch 79 The Inferno Pt.III

The Inferno Pt.III

The Astaroth accepted the Lucifer's comms request, and Lucile let out a sigh as she saw Astarte's stunned look. Lucile felt a pang in her heart as she saw her daughters haggard face. It was probably one of the few times she had ever felt an ounce of maternal instinct to protect her daughter. Even when her daughter had been nearly pummeled to death by Kazlum she hadn't felt the way a mother should feel for her daughter. She had been worried and concerned for her, but in the way she would have been if the same thing had happened to Bell or Modius. She had been concerned for her as a fellow comrade in arms, not like a mother should be for her daughter. But now looking into Astarte's tear-soaked cheeks and obvious distress Lucile felt something deep within her scarred heart break.

Her daughter straightened up and tried to compose herself "How did you know?"

Lucile cocked her head to the side, she didn't need her to clarify what she meant. "We knew something had gone wrong when Cameo's QC reported that they had perished, we rushed the repairs and made our way here." When Johan had burst into her office with the news the Cameo had been destroyed and that there was no word from the Astaroth they had known that something had gone catastrophically wrong. Out of all the Hellworlder ships only Lucifer was space worthy at the moment, and even then they weren't ready to charge headfirst into battle. "Found the remains of Cameo and followed the mess you caused all the way to that gas giant, we had to double back on ourselves when you led that Kruhur fleet right into a Union fleet, clever trick by the way. We lost you after that until this whole sector of space lit up like Chinese new year."

Astarte nodded her head "Came just in time," she said softly.

Lucile felt her throat choke up "I know, you did good, now let us handle it from here." She said softly.

Aster nodded again and the screen went black, outside the Astaroth broke off its kamikaze run and pulled away from the behemoth Kruhur ship. The Astaroth looked like a giant had taken a sledgehammer to its hull, the port half of the conning tower was warped and melted, their were obvious holes cut into its hull, and all its pulse cannons had been obliterated. It was mark in favor of its incredibly thick armor that the explosion from the pulse cannons hadn't cracked the whole ship open.

Lucile fixed her baleful gaze at the behemoth Kruhur ship that had stopped its flailing and had instead turned the gaze of that oversized pulse cannon on the Lucifer, but for whatever reason the Kruhur held off their attack. "Johan, ready the shield breaker, and double the pay load." She calmly ordered as her crew began to run through all the minute tedious tasks that needed to be done every time they readied Lucifer's primary weapon. Firing the shield breaker cannon put everyone on board at extreme risk every time it was fired, it would only take one miscalculation to kill them all.

"Chamber pressure is at zero point zero PSI"

"Opening the external hatch, no leaks detected."

"Cooling is at optimal temps."

"Firing rod is in place

"Neutron shield is at full, rad shielding is at full, heat shielding is at full, we're ready for the payload."

"Payload is in the chamber; we are ready to fire at you're command." Johan reported to her as her highly trained bridge crew executed their jobs with flawless accuracy. They had trained and drilled for hours and hours before they felt comfortable with attempting a live fire test if the Lucifers highly experimental weapon.