23: Red Eye Express

Well, here we are. I intentionally delayed your arrival here on the Ak'na'ata by about an hour to give the A'khr enough time to really engage the Pfhor. It seems to have worked. The Pfhor were caught completely off-guard, and have since been pushed back hard. But, as usual, the A'khr are disorganized and without proper control, since I am not currently commanding them. Without your interference, the Pfhor will eradicate this incursion without much effort.

"There is nothing you can do, nowhere you can go, no place where you will escape the wrath of the A'jhr high council. They will fight you to the end of time and all life. When the last breath is gasped by the last A'khr warrior at the gates of... wherever, it will be spent with the blood of a hundred enemies stained on its hands." This is their litany, the mantra that they chant as they leap into battle. This dedication to ultimate bloodlust and warfare is fascinating, don't you agree? The A'khr would commit everything it had to capture this one ship. For them, defeating the Pfhor at anything is an issue of ultimate life or death.

I knew, of course, that the A'khr had no chance of victory here. The Pfhor see it as a matter not of pride, but of avoiding blame; no Pfhor captain could face a tribunal, say he was responsible for the loss of a ship, and live to see the following murky sunrise on Pfhor Prime. So he brings in everyone he can and plugs every corridor with insect chitin and electric staves. It's a deplorable lack of strategy, but it confounds the A'khr at every turn. They'll continue to hack away at it, and they'll continue to die, and they'll continue to claim it as valiance and the first bold step on the path to vengeance. It's a bit ridiculous, in reality.

Here you see the success of A'Khr brute strength, but they are slowly losing momentum elsewhere around the ship. Their attack on the command deck is stalling as hordes of the insects repel them back toward the reception lobbies. The Pfhor could likely have repelled the A'khr eventually without your help, but I'm sure you will have caused enough discord and damage to the Renegades to completely misalign their attack. Just finish the job and you'll be fine. Further along this branch of the deck, you will find one of the security booths. You will recall that there are two in total you must visit first.

Good. You have now gained entry into the coolant storage tanks. These are actually held in reserve, and teleported as needed into the tanks of other craft. It allows those craft to remain small and maneuverable, as you may expect. Through a curious arrangement, you may be able to gain access to the shipboard weapons control station on the far side of these tanks. Pressure barriers, at certain points, allow objects to pass from a dry space into the hyperdrive tank from the bottom, or at a submerged point elsewhere. You may have to enter into the fluid yourself. You'll live.

The weapon booth is fairly simple to understand. Our scans show that some S'pht -- the ones still enslaved by the insects -- have taken refuge in the booth, but are not firing on the Renegades in some hope of salvation. It's unfortunate. In any event, the control system is like any human system for such powerful weapons. You will first need to arm the weapon, and then actually operate the firing controls. We suspect there is some automatic targeting system; it should be enough to enable the weapon. Target a ship and destroy it, and then look for a terminal in the weapon booth for extraction.

It may take a little while for the weapons to warm up. As long as the tracking system is on, though, that should be enough for now. The Atreides was forced down about three months ago. If you're wondering how it took three full months for the automated SOS to return to Earth, remember: it was a silent ship. It wasn't supposed to transmit anything at all until the Pfhor started rummaging around in the bridge and sent out the transmission looking for more valuable information. And these idiots are the ones holding the A'khr at bay.

Within half an hour, the Pfhor will have suffered such a defeat here that they will have no choice but to counterattack in full. That is, if I understand Pfhor military tactics well enough. And it's not like their higher command is difficult to comprehend. I will bring you down to a facility that I have deliberately left as the most obvious breach point into the Renegade citadel. Once the Pfhor pass through the hole of the Atreides explosion, they will need to pass through this structure. I will bring you down shortly. You will be helping the Pfhor punch through the A'khr defenses. Do what you do best.