The Alienbutt Saga, Book 1. War of the Coffee Bean. Part 19.

Piestoff had failed in contacting Wickede before the fleet jumped to light speed. In desperation he opened a secure channel on the Ick frequency.
“This is Piestoff Alienbutt, can anybody hear me?” Silence greeted him. Again he tried, a desperate throw of the dice this far out in space where no one would hear him.
“This is Admiral Frederick the second. Alienbutt, are you not supposed to be with Wickede?”
Piestoff stared at Killashandra in shock; there shouldn’t be any Ick out here apart from those with Wickede.
“Admiral, Wickede is flying into a trap at the Crazy Droid system. He will be massively outnumbered, and he’s already on his way there and can’t be reached.”
“I’m on manoeuvres with a hundred dreadnoughts. We can be there in five hours at maximum speed if that would help,” the admiral replied. “We found a passage in The Book that suggested we come and train out here. Wasn’t that a stroke of luck?”
Piestoff breathed a sigh of relief, while the girls jumped around cheering. Killashandra, who stood next to Piestoff, leaned down and said, “Thank God for that, I was starting to think I chose the wrong side.”
Piestoff threw her a shocked look but saw the grin on her face. “Joke, Alienbutt, now let’s get ready to go kill things.”

Snoodgrass braced himself for impact; the fact that the impact would kill him didn’t stop him tensing. He looked at Mr. Rochester and saw he was gripping the console where he stood, then a strange fuzziness appeared around him. Snoodgrass began to feel strange and for a second the world appeared as if viewed through a glass of water. Suddenly he was somewhere else. He looked around disoriented, and saw a short human woman, who was standing behind a console. She began to speak, and it took a moment for Snoodgrass to understand what she said.
“We got them, Alienbutt.” She then walked around the console towards him and Mr. Rochester. “I’m Killashandra. Welcome aboard, Snoodgrass. You had Alienbutt worried we wouldn’t be able to get a lock on your position before you hit the other ship. Bloody daft thing to do if you ask me, crashing ships like that.” She smiled and passed a bottle of whiskey over to Snoodgrass as he began to get his senses back together. “Alienbutt said you might fancy a wee tot to steady your nerves.”

Admiral Frederick’s fleet swept into the battle, fighter ships racing out of the hangar bays to join the fighting. The newly arrived dreadnoughts swept across the skirmish, picking out cruisers and systematically destroying them. them. By Crazy Droids’ single planet, the space stations began to move, desperate for an emergency departure, knowing that now the battle was lost and they faced certain destruction. Four dreadnoughts broke from the battle to intercept, Commander Kali gathering together Grommit, Cyborgpirate and Deadeye Erne, ordering them to concentrate fire on the first of the stations. Their combined fire power caused massive explosions on the light defences of the station. Without slowing their attack, they moved onto the next target.

The battle had turned, and the Ick knew it. Alienbutt swept through the battlefield, still flying the custom dreadnought as he would a fighter ship. Killashandra, now on the weapons console, picked out targets with deadly accuracy. In their wake, the last remaining bounty hunters gathered to him and followed, destroying anything that tried to sneak up on Alienbutt’s ship. The robot fighter ships, receiving new orders to defend the space stations, turned and headed for the single planet, but were chased down quickly and destroyed. The enemy fleet now fought to survive and turned their thoughts to fleeing the lost battle. Captain Noble, eyes wide, flew at an enemy cruiser, her lasers blazing into its command bridge. At the last possible moment she pulled up, and spinning around in a tight loop, watched in satisfaction as the ship began to list and it collided with another of the cruisers, explosions ripping through both. Wickede, calling the remnants of his fleet’s fighters to him, swept through the battlefield and headed to give aid to Commander Kali as she and others of the Fo'c'sle continued to attack the enemy space stations. Four had already sustained massive damage. While the dreadnoughts moved onto the next station, continuing their systematic destruction of their propulsion systems, the Ick fighters led by Wickede targeted their remaining defensive guns and hangar bays.

Blackarachnia and Nifty, still fighting as a pair, dealt destruction with apparent ease, both able to out-fly anything on the battlefield. One of the space stations, still undamaged, had managed to get clear of the destruction around the planet and was moving with all speed away from the battle. Seeing it escape, Nifty set off in pursuit. Blackarachnia, saw her go, cursed and set off after her. As they approached the ship, defensive guns opened fire at them. Spinning and dodging, they continued their approach. Other Ick ships joined the chase as Nifty, never even slowing, entered the main tunnel-like hangar, firing off all of her remaining torpedoes, and with her lasers constantly firing; she flew through and out of the other end, leaving a blazing hangar behind her. Explosions started within the hangar area as fuel tanks for the fighter ships ruptured. Blackarachnia swung to the rear of the station and concentrated fire on the exposed engine cooling ducts. As explosions ripped through the area Blackarachnia spun away.
“Nifty, time we were leaving!” he shouted through the com.-link.
“On my way, I think we broke this one. So where were you planning on us getting married?”
Both fighters accelerated away as explosions rocked the space station before it disappeared in a final massive blast.
“I was thinking that we could use Wickede's Imperial Palace,” replied Blackarachnia, as he casually destroyed another robot fighter.
“And run the risk of you changing your mind? Wickede can marry us tomorrow, and I want more than just a two week honeymoon too, as you're saving on paying for the wedding.”

To be continued.
Thanks for reading.
All images are mine.