Thundercats (with many elements of Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato)

The Future is the Past

A Crossover Tale by Frederick P. Kopetz

Chapter Three: Rum, Piracy, and the Lash…

On the Argo, Nova reacted a moment later at the radar when she snapped, "Energy surge coming in from the Vertis! Distance, twenty megameters, speed, twenty space knots…coordinates-WP-12 by BC-22!"

"Kitano! Hard about to those coordinates!" snapped Admiral Wildstar. "Open all guns! Target, the Vertis!"

"What are you going to do to that ship?" snapped Panthro as he slapped the back of Derek's bridge seat.

"Eager, where's that identification?" barked Derek as Panthro looked out the windows saw the huge gun turrets out on the Argo's deck ponderously turning and then training on their target.

"There ain't any!" said Eager. "Random pirate ship by the looks of it. It looks like junk!"

"My gut feeling, too," said Nova. She did a quick scan. "She's coming in closer-ten megameters! Derek, if we hit her amidships…"

Panthro gasped as more fire roared in from the ship. "When are you shooting?"

"Turret correction, plus two," snapped Derek, ignoring him. "Right in range. Great. OPEN FIRE!"

Then, the Argo's six forward guns and three forward auxiliary cannons spoke with an angry thunderclap as nine beams of energy blasted right toward the Vertis.

Eight of them hit the pirate ship, dead-on.

On the First Bridge, LionO looked on in shock as the beams slammed into the Vertis and left a huge, smoking hole in the pirate ship.

"I didn't think this old vessel would have that much firepower!" said LionO.

"The Argo's an old ship, but the legends about her make her one of the most effective warships known ever in time and space," said Panthro. "This vessel is supposed to have defeated entire interstellar empires. One old pirate ship is almost nothing but target practice for her crew."

On the Vertis, a shocked Captain Shinar was hearing report after report of damage to his engines, warp drive, port side broadside cannon emplacements, life support, and crews' quarters when he received a communication from Mumm-Ra.

"Having a little bit of trouble from the past, Shinar?" Mumm-Ra said with a demented grin.

"Trouble?" said Shinar. "We're getting our tails kicked! I'm not sure if I want to withdraw or try to commit suicide and ram that damn boat!"

More energy blasts from the Argo smashed in, as an officer reported to Shinar, "Port side engine has just gone dead, sir. Propulsion energy is now down by one-half. Twenty minutes to get the engine restored."

"Return fire!" snapped Shinar. "I want that vessel blown to bits if we can manage it!"

"Do you see that protrusion on the Argo's port side?" said Mumm-Ra. "Aim right for it. Cheetara and the Thunderkittens and allied officers are there. A direct hit will kill them nice and dead."

"Roger that," snapped Shinar as he shoved aside his gunnery officer and took aim himself. "5…4…3…2…1…"

"There's danger!" cried Cheetara.

Desperate, she contacted Nova with her mind and warned her of the danger.

Nova sent to her "understood," and then she sent to Derek, "We need to make a short warp! NOW!"

Wildstar then snapped, "KITANO! SHORT WARP! EMERGENCY!"

Ten seconds later, after throwing the overrides, Kitano was ready to move.

"WARP!" snapped Kitano at the same time on the Argo's bridge as he followed an order from Derek, who had been advised by Nova to execute a short warp.

The Argo flashed blue and shimmered out of normal space just as Shinar's deadly barrage roared towards the space battleship's port side observation deck.

She reappeared in normal space a moment later, with her starboard side now facing the Vertis as she roared up, having crossed the pirate ship's "T", bringing all three of her main turrets and two auxiliary turrets against the Vertis.

The full broadsides that came from the Argo were utterly devastating, ripping a huge swath in the Vertis' port side like a knife plunged into silk.

"Losing life support!" barked another officer on the Vertis as the Argo came about, firing her bow torpedoes at the pirate ship.

"Surviving crew, make way for the escape pods!" snapped Shinar as Mumm-Ra laughed and faded off his screen. "Make ready to abandon ship! I'm going to need a whole squadron of these cruisers to defeat that one miserable ship!"

Shinar then jumped for an escape pod and he left his Vertis behind, just in time. Only eight more escape pods blew out of the ship before another barrage from the Argo blew her in half, and then finally finished her off as the Vertis just blew apart in a massive fireball.

"That was easier than it looked," said LionO on the Argo's bridge.

"Easy?" said Derek. "I've taken six hits to my own ship, and you call that easy? No battle is ever easy," he snarled at LionO.

"We have wounded on Decks Five and Six, and we just escaped a bloodbath for our allies when we warped," said Nova.

"Have Sasha take over your post…go and assist Doctor Sane in Sickbay," said Derek.

Nova nodded, saluted and left.

"We still have some distance left to go," said Derek.

"How far?" asked LionO.

"More than you know," said Wildstar.

TO BE CONTINUED….