Let Slip the Dogs of War
"Have they taken the bait?" Tam asked, eir hands racing
over the controls of the Cave Canem.
Lucille checked the various displays, and grinned viciously. "Yep,
they're all locked on and chasing us. Let's go!"
Tam chuckled, and eir finger stabbed down, sending the little
spaceship diving towards a cloud of dust, as if trying to lose its
chasers. "Put the umbrellas up in three .... two ... one..."
Lucille sent the pre-programmed release code with a flick of her
eyes, and the secondary bow shields unfurled, simultaneously
protecting the ship from incoming particles and reducing the ship's
ability to sense what was ahead of it.
That was ok, they knew what was waiting, even if their pursuers did
not. The Cave Canem danced and twisted, then burst out of the
far side of the cloud. Here another cloud, made of massive warships,
waited in stealth mode.
Lucille tipped her head to nudge the comms on. "Ready or not,"
she sing-songed, "here they come."
Lights on the side of every waiting ship flickered twice in
acknowledgement, and then steadied again. Tam sent them skittering
out of the way, and then slammed on their own stealth mode.
The pursuing ships plunged free of the cloud, dropped their
umbrellas, and found themselves in a storm of weapons-fire.
The battle didn't last long. Lucille watched it on the displays,
offering Tam a running commentary. "Mastiff got two, but
she's taken a beating.... One's trying to escape, but Bloodhound's
on it.... Terrier got the last one," she finished,
turning her wheelchair colours into victorious blue and gold flames.
"That's that set of wolves dealt with. They won't hurt anyone
else."
"Good," Tam said, with a soft viciousness that matched
Lucille's own. "Very, very, good."
Their opponents should never, Lucille thought, have underestimated
harmless looking little old ships if they wanted to survive. Or, at
the very least, paid attention to the ship's name.
Cave Canem. Beware of the Dog!
