Stigmata Invicta by Carl Michael Curtis

Author:Carl Michael Curtis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cape and Swordstick Press
Published: 2024-02-19T00:00:00+00:00

BROTHER GONZAGA EASES up, shuts down his TechHaft. As Brother Cleopas comes smoothly sailing at him under the power of the commander’s hurl, he grabs the damaged Knight and turns with him to stop the motion.

“Gotcha, brother.”

Cleopas pats him on the shoulder. “Thanks. I’m uh... well, I’ve seen some better days.”

Receiving Cleopas’s suit’s SOS, Gonzaga nods. “Yeah. Well. Wouldn’t be a Knight 15 13 without the risk of giving your life for your friends, eh?”

Brother Pio and Commander Brigid land on the St. Joshua, their magboots grabbing with a powerful click. Brigid says, “Pio, get Cleopas. Gonzaga, get her inside like I told you to.”

“Roger, commander,” Gonzaga turns to the airlock.

“Bernhard, we’re on board,” Brigid reports.

“Copy that, prepare for maneuvers.”

For a split second the strange peace outside in God’s inescapable glory is like a weird skin that drapes over them. A cleansing rain. A breach in the tide of deafening violence they’ve been mired in.

And then the newest contraption the Thraw have assembled fires from the docking bay, an actual grappling hook and trail line jetting towards them. Then a second one springs off. And a third. The fourth, fifth and sixth come sailing towards them. Then more. The hooks begin catching onto the hull, clamping down with grippers. Thraw soldiers hook onto the trail lines and jump out of the bay, come careening towards the St. Joshua.

The Knights start firing at the newest invasion force. The St. Joshua rolls hard to its starboard away from ther Thraw mothership. The trail lines tense and actually pull the mothership along.

“They must have those hook launchers secured to the deck.” Brigid comes over the comms, “Hit the hooks themselves! We’ve got to go!”

They open fire as Thraw soldiers touch down on the St. Joshua and start moving under fire. The St. Joshua’s Terminal Point Autocannons spin around and begin mowing through the new invaders. But more come. Brigid looks back to the docking bay and sees it teeming with every soldier they did not encounter while they were inside.

“We’ve got to get an explosive inside that bay,” he says.

“You’ve got to get inside,” Captain Bernhard comes over the comms.

“They’re thinning out,” Nonnatus says as he lays down another line of fire.

A final grappling hook comes flying through the mess like a needle propelling out of a haystack. Untouched in the melee, it sails, impressively spot-on to its target. It fixes onto the ring basket and the nun inside it, runs taunt in the blink of an eye, and heaves backwards.

Gonzaga’s magboots lock down, and the tug of war is just a hair’s breadth in time; it passes and the ring basket’s clasps break and the entire package comes free. Those lines are towing a ship. His suit doesn’t stand a chance. Sister Stella Nessa inside her basket goes sailing backwards. All the Knights dive for it, save Cleopas, whose damaged suit keeps him from moving swiftly.

Gonzaga cannot turn around fast enough.

Santa Cruz dives and misses by a hair.

Nonnatus lunges and nearly grabs the basket.

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