IUSD25

==Chapter 25 - I used to Dream==
Kowloon System
Lyran Commonwealth
3091
[perspective from Patrick Ngo]
There is a use for antimatter after all.
"Golden Lake, the first passage is clear of the ring, come on through."
They sent a cutter back through for us.  The KF drives had to be brought offline, but apparently that was enough, something about the toroidal barrier let a cutter through, and then a second.
We've got eleven back. The twelfth is on their way, and behind them, the Destroyer.
She steams through at one gee, with maneuver drives running hot. Just as it's detectors on that side pick up the arrival of a Clan Warship in the system.
"RTO, send widecast through the gateway at the Clanners. Standard SLDF tac-com channel, no scrambling." I instructed the station's comm officer.
"Ready, Sir."
I press the mic button on my console.  "Attention Star Adder vessels, It's all yours, boys.  You missed us! I left you a little present. A token of my esteem for your good works. Come and get it."
"How many kilograms did you use?" Penny asks.
"I sent the first hundred kilos with the second supply run, with orders to implant the charges on the ring itself, with coding instructions and directions to rig it.  They're not going to get gateway tech, but if we can get them close enough to it, the result will be...gratifying." I tell her.  "Those ****** tried to kill my sister, they managed to kill a couple million people."  
I lean back as the last of the tenders lead the destroyer through the gateway.  "So...I'm going to make a nice, high-energy physics experiment in that graveyard of a system."
I switch channels and send the arming codes for the demolition charges.  I'm not sure exactly what a metric ton of antimatter fullerene will do once the gate's closed, but based on their vectors, known thrust profile, and the fact my message is on 'repeat'?
They're going to come looking and when they do...it'll be fully charged when it goes off.
I should talk to mom about sending a science vessel out there to look at the explosion after.
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CSA Warlock
Lola III-Class Destroyer 
Colleen System
Deep Periphery
3091
"...ring station, this is Clan Star Adder vessel Warlock, heave to and prepare to be boarded!" 
Star Captain Itumbe Paik waited.  "Is there any response at all?" 
"No sir.  There is the repeating signal and that is all." 
"I have activity on the ring, sir!" a tech announced. 
"Battle stations. Elementals stand by for a boarding action!" he said with satisfaction. 
As they approached the station, which was a ring. It is girdled with solar panels several kilometers in length, sitting at the edge of the jump limit.
"Launch fighters."  and Paik thought it was boring again, but they would find out what deception the Blood Spirits and their filthy spheroid allies had come up wi-
The energy flash ended the thought, as trapped energies in tuned structures interacted with the chaotic release of energies from roughly a thousand antimatter charges placed around the ring's opposing perimeter.  The magnetic fields of the structure's tuning apparatus tuned in a slightly different way, creating a lensing effect and a kilometer wide energy beam along ranges not seen in nature since the big bang.
The Warship? It stood no chance. A kilometer wide burst of primal energies washed across her like a firehose on a play-dough model.
As for the station, for it's part, ceased to exist. 
However in it's place, there's a nice strange collection of magnetic monopoles drifting in space, and a scar on space-time where it was. 
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Epilogue: Amanda
The light was too bright, and the choirs were silent. "Mmmph.."
A Corpsman and a nurse came over, and started removing the feeding tubes.
"Is this...is it real?" asked Amanda Ngo
She wasn't sure, especially when her father walked in, and there were tears in his eyes.
"What happened??"
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FIN
The story of Ngoverse continues in Important People.
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