Astra Pt. 04

Artificial Sentient Terraforming Robotic Automaton (ASTRA)

Synopsis: With the fall of humanity the fate of its survival and resurrection resides in the hands of a very attractive female Android and the man chosen to be that champion; Jack Travus.

Inspired by so many things but not endorsed by any of them. © EmotionalStorm May 2022. This story cannot be transferred to any other site besides Literotica.com without prior authorization in writing from the author and EmotionalStorm must be credited for this work.

Author's Note: Originally released © EmotionalStorm June 2019, this is an updated version with hundreds of edits/corrections. For those who have not read my bio, please note I write as a form of therapy for a Traumatic Brain Injury. I know the English majors will probably encounter issues that annoy them. If these are your focus, instead of the story itself, then this is not the story for you. I am not and will never be a professional writer. I do it to tell the story, for those who wish to read them.

---

Grace looked at Jack, "That Admiral was fit to be tied."

Jack nodded, "I know."

Vincent smiled, "I knew him when he was an XO on a battleship. He hated fighter jocks. Expect him to pull something."

Jack smiled, "I know, we never discussed the live and just need to be deployed, 6x streaming lasers. They will drop any shields of any surprise bogies."

Vincent looked at Jack as they walked, "My daughter seems happy."

Jack nodded to him, "I believe Sprits is very happy. We are all happy to have her. She was the first one I married and she is a lovely woman."

Jack got to deck 8 and got into Merlin and powered up, "Astra, ready to launch Merlin."

She responded, "Shuttle Bay doors are open for you."

He took off and called out, "Tera-4, I am searching for one fighter pilot. Callsigns Death Blossom. I have orders to pick them up. This is MERLIN TPS-497042."

He heard, "Merlin, this is Crazy Eights. You received orders to pick her up. From who?"

Jack replied, "Crazy Eights, Admiral Stiller and the President. The good news is you will be back with Wildcard unless they team you up with another rookie."

Crazy Eights laughed, "They will. The new pilots only fly for 10-day windows out of every 30 days."

Jack smiled, "Crazy Eights, she is grounded for now. Where do I pick her up?"

Crazy Eights laughed, "This has to do with you getting into it with her?"

Jack laughed, "Crazy Eights, something like that. I think she kicked a hornet's nest."

Crazy Eights laughed, "Better her than me. She is headed to the military dock on Tera-5 now."

He headed toward Tera-5, "Crazy Eights, need permission to pick her up from that dock."

Crazy Eights laughed, "Talk with the tower. The wing commander won't like it."

Jack laughed, "The wing commander can tell me themself. Face-to-face on that dock. Tera-5 this is Merlin headed for Military Dock to pick up a fighter pilot."

He heard back, "Merlin, this is Tera-5 tower. Use civilian bays."

Jack laughed out, "Tera-5, If I use civilian bays I will dock Excalibur there for the next week. This is Jack Travus. Are you ready for the security nightmare?"

Jack heard, "Merlin, this is Tera-5 tower stand by for their wing commander."

Jack heard, "This is the wing commander at Tera-5. What right do you think you have to use a military dock?"

Jack replied, "Wing Commander if I could have your name and callsign, I will have my authority contact you personally. I just finished talking with the President."

She tried his patients, "Wing Command Felson here. Dragon Lady."

Jack hit the message and President Grendal came up. "Hello again. Problem?"

Jack laughed, "Yes, my pilot is on Tera-5, and Wing Commander Felson does not want me using the military dock. The last time I used civilian docks we had a riot on Tera-3. Could you contact her and kick her in her iron pants to submit to my reasonable request? Else I can park Excalibur at the dock for the next 7 days."

He laughed, "You would too. I just sent a message to the Wing Commander. You are cleared to use that dock to prevent a riot on the station."

Jack nodded, "Thank you, Mr. President. I tried to be nice." President Grendal laughed and disconnected. "This is Merlin to Dragon Lady. Did you get your orders yet?"

He could tell she was pissed, "Tower, clear Merlin to make a brief stop at the military dock. Pad 4."

He got a glide path and flew in behind a pair of fighters while he went in and landed on Pad 4. He opened the door and saw armed military members standing there. They looked, "You are not cleared to be here."

Jack looked over at him, "Talk to Wing Commander Felson who just got ordered by the President to allow me to be here."

Jack saw a woman walking across the area who was ready to spit nails. She looked at Jack, "What do you want Merlin?"

Jack looked at her, "For starters some damned respect. President Grendal asked me to get a pilot, callsign Death Blossom."

She sighed, "What for?"

Jack shook his head, "As far as you are concerned you do not have a need-to-know. Now find me the rookie pilot or you can explain yourself to the President because you have started to piss me off, Dragon Lady."

She looked at Jack, "This is my hangar. When I am aboard your aircraft. You can talk to me that way!"

Jack nodded, "Challenge accepted."

He reached out mentally and whipped her into his craft and sat her in the chair. "Now do I get that pilot or contact President Grendal?"

The guards tried to enter the craft and bounced off a wall. She looked out, "Stand down. Get the pilot."

She looked at Jack. "How in the hell did you do that?"

Jack looked outside to two fighters sitting on the pad out there and picked them up and moved them about 10 degrees and set them down as the guards backed off more. He looked at her, "Much easier than that."

She looked at Jack, "You are a piece of work."

Jack nodded, "As are you."

He looked out and the girl was there. He waved Felson out. "I'll be off your deck in just a minute." Death Blossom got on board and Jack closed the door. He hit the button and turned off his transponder. "Hold tight."

Jack turned and launched out of her bay and dove straight down. She looked at him, "That is above port speed."

Jack looked over, "Really?"

Death Blossom laughed at him as he angled the ship, "What are you doing?"

Jack smiled, "Bouncing off the atmosphere." He bounced off, powered down, and drifted below Tera-4.

She looked, "What did that do?"

Jack smiled, "We have no power signature. With the advent of stealth fighters and jamming technologies, they did away with radar centuries ago for tracking and focused on power, transponders, and visual observations in space.

Only a visual observation will see us. As far as they saw we headed into the atmosphere. They cannot track beyond it with the sensors they currently have. Once we are close enough, Astra will open the doors and swallow the shuttle. We will hit the retros to stabilize and land."

Death Blossom looked, "They are going to expect us back?"

Jack shook his head, "Not for 2 weeks."

Death Blossom sighed, "I will lose the 7 days of flying I have left?"

Jack shook his head, "No, you will be learning to fly."

Death Blossom looked at him, "Explain?"

Jack smiled, "You will be flying 5x craft for the next 2 weeks. You will be my wingman. I am going to teach you to fly your ass off. You have been selected for a series of live-fire exercises. My records list me as a fighter pilot instructor. You are going back to school."

Death Blossom looked at Jack like he had 2 heads. "You will be flying one of my fighter mock-ups against 12 fighters at speed. Once we are down to 2, we will drop to 1x and engage the last 2 fighters. They will try and take your shields down and then hit your armor. That is not going to happen. You will be firing a pair of rail guns loaded with rounds of metallic paint. We are going to paint those fighters pink. Then we are going to land aboard the Excalibur.

We will switch to live ammo and new rail guns. Then fly the Death Valley course and head to the Mojave range and blow the crap out of it without them hitting your armor. There you can fly at speed. You will fire until you cannot fire, they hit your armor, or I recall you. I got President Grendal to sign off on this after the Admiral and General did not like my fighter design. Admiral Stiller said it was too big. Just too big."

Death Blossom shook her head as they approached the Excalibur and he used retros to land the shuttle. Jack looked at her, pulled out the pad, and showed her the fighter and the gun complement.

Death Blossom got a big-ass grin on her face. "You made it so I can stomp on Crazy Eights for setting me up against you. Also, Wildcard!"

Jack nodded, "Callsigns are Lancer-1 and Lancer-2. You are Lancer-2."

---

The next week was a whirlwind of activity. The computers arrived, the engines installed, systems wired, and cores put in place. Point defense software was installed and the algorithms were modified by Jack to be more aggressive. Jack taught Lauren to fly her ass off in Merlin on the dark side of Luna. He had Sprits play bait to teach moves. He had to get the Red Mouser and the rocket moved to the cargo bay when the assembly started. Then he got Ash and Danyelle to practice in the new scout.

Getting them to fight just as he would do it against destroyers and battleships. He gave specific orders if anything big came into play. Take out shields, retros, rail guns, and missile batteries with laser batteries last. He just did not trust Admiral Stiller. Lancer 1 and 2 finished on day 8, and Lancer 3 on day 9. They were wired, new weapons were in place, weapons installed, and set up for the live fire.

They checked the metallic paint ammo 5 times with the guns and got the exact shade of pink he wanted, a neon bubblegum pink. The guns worked flawlessly. All other weapons were tested to make sure they were live-fire capable. He set the PD lasers to fry their paint but that was it.

Jack looked at the ladies, "The Admiral throws something, do not pursue or move from your target, Stay on my wing, Death Blossom. If anything, use the stations for cover. Ash and Danyelle will find the trouble maker and bring it to its knees. Sprits will aid them with Lancer-3."

The ladies all nodded at him. He ran her through the shield configurations. "Down, shield-1. Up shield-2. When one is up the other is fast charging. If you need to switch, do it while out of their range. Before dropping to 1x get to a clean shield or the one in the best shape. Once you are done, we will land on the Excalibur. We swap out rail guns, install fresh ammo, and button-up after fixing the lasers. The Excalibur will move us closer to the planet while we do this.

They will be parked between Tera-4 and -5. We will come up from the dark side of the moon. I will inform the President that enemy fighters are making a run on Tera-5. You know what to do. We have no transponders on the fighters. We are bogies, fast movers, I will call out Tranquility if I need us to lead them toward the moon. I will call out Robin Hood if I need King Arthur and Lancer-3 to deploy with no ID. I will give you a location. Your targets would be obvious.

Else you keep the fight right where they would launch from. Astra, you got voice synthesizers on all our craft and a private communication channel for us to communicate. If they have not gotten in the air we move to the hangar and that is the shooting gallery. Work outside edges in. Flypast them, spin, angle, and blast them one at a time you have speed and range.

Leave Wildcard and Crazy Eights for last if they are present. Pulse laser Gatling cannons, point defense, and rail guns all have to be adjusted before the range and we want to be en route in under 30 minutes after we clear the sky of them."

---

It was 3 hours before the exercise and they launched out as one as Excalibur moved between the stations. The 3 fighters below the scout masked their approach to the moon. Jack called out, "Lancer-3, use callsign Maid Marian."

She laughed as did the others. They circled slowly until Excalibur was in position. He called up the President who was in his office with the Admiral and General. Jack nodded to them, "Mr. President. You got two untagged fast movers approaching Tera-5 in less than 2 minutes. I hope they are ready. Lancer-1 and Lancer-2 are ready."

President Grendal nodded, "Proceed."

Jack smiled, "Light them up. I will be flying in Lancer-1. We have Ash and Danyelle on the scout waiting for the double-cross. We got another surprise if that happens as well. The scout will have its ID on, for now."

They listened to the chatter, "Two bogies inbound."

They heard a response, "From where?" He watched them and kept an eye open for sensor readings.

---

"Lancer-1 going weapons hot. Counting only 4 fighters in the air. Stay on target Lancer-2."

He heard, "Who is talking out there? This is Tera-5, we are picking up two fast-moving spacecraft. No ID on them. Please get a visual."

Lauren did as Jack showed her. They flew past and twisted. Blasting the fighters with pink paint. One of the pilots yelled out, "I cannot see shit. My canopy is trashed in pink paint!"

A second one followed suit, "Tower, I need an instrument landing. Cannot see shit." That was followed by 3 and 4 as they circled back in. They looked and saw nothing in the air. "Lancer-2, proceed to the shooting gallery."

The 2 fighters went to the military docks at Tera-5 and started firing into the docks at the craft still on the ground and painting the fighters left and right. Personnel jumped to get out of the way. "Tranquility." He watched to see what would happen and the Admiral did not disappoint.

Jack used the secure channel, "We got 24 fighters coming out of the main commercial docks from Tera-4 and another set of 24 from Tera-5, Lancers 2. They grew the party for us, we have 48 fresh ducks to pluck. Neutralize all targets. More ducks in the barrel."

He saw a pair of battleships coming from Tera-6. "Robin Hood, Tera-6!" They stayed together and blasted past the fighters taking them out 3 or 4 at a time.

Jack contacted President Grendal. President Grendal smiled, "How goes it?"

Jack laughed, "We will deal with the 48 fighters. The 2 battleships will have to deal with Robin Hood and Maid Marian. My scout and Lancer-3. They are not firing paint!"

He looked at Jack, "You are going to fire on them?"

Jack smiled, "They fire on the fighters they will be without shields and then without weapons. Starting with their rail guns. The Admiral can change the rules then so can I. Scout transponder is off and is engaging."

Ash had the pilot seat and Danyelle the copilot. As they shot toward the Battleships. They punched it across the area and watched to see what the 2 battleships would do. The Battleships turned their guns toward the scout. Ash took evasive action as Jack had taught her. She bolted left dove under and the shots went past her.

Sprits shot high to divide the fire. They had not adjusted for the speed of the craft. They flew in using one battleship to block the other as Ash flew by and twisted. They blew out their shields and the second one's shields. Ash called out, "Battleships stand down or be destroyed!"

She circled Tera-5. Sprits flew under the battleships and headed for the other side of Tera-5. Missiles launched and her PD lasers destroyed the missiles as they came out of the barrels.

She turned and flew toward the moon to try and pull the battleships away. She called out, "This is Maid Marian, missile launchers ate themselves on both battleships as they fired into my PD weapons."

Astra looped them into the conference as Sprits spoke, "Mr. President. Do we start taking out hardware or do they turn around?"

President Grendal looked over, "Admiral Stiller is not backing down."

Sprits nodded, "How are our fighters doing?"

President Grendal laughed, "They seem to be having a problem tracking them."

Ash came over the top of the station and aimed down. She blasted through one and then the second rail gun on the battleship. She caught some laser fire but was not worried as she had 76% shields left.

She shot out the other 2 rail guns and then circled down behind them. She saw a 20-meter gap between the 2 and flew in. Danyelle redirected the PD weapons to take out retro thrusters on both sides. Danyelle did not get them all. Ash spun and gunned it back. Danyelle got the last of them as they hit her shields but they no longer had thrusters on those sides.

Ash called out, "Mr. President, BS-1 is without aft thrusters. BS-2 is without any starboard thrusters. Both have no missile racks or rail guns as the missiles fired on Lancer-3. The missile racks ate their missiles as her point defense weapons ate them for lunch. I melted down the rail guns. Next is heavy lasers. Ask Admiral Stiller if this scout should continue to pulverize his 2 battleships."

---

Sprits went into low power mode after circling the Moon. She awaited some new direction if another ambush showed. Finally, she powered up and gunned it back toward the Battleships seeing nothing new.

---

Ash did not get an answer as she shot up along the outside of the first one and shot out all the retro thrusters, PD weapons, and then laser cannons on that side. She dropped under as her shields hit 2%, Danyelle flipped the switch and was at a hundred percent again on the secondary shields. The scout had 3 sets of shields.

She went in between the starbase and the other battleship and blew off all the retro thrusters and PD weapons on that side. The battleship fired and missed a lot and hit the station with a few shots, "Mr. President. Port and starboard point-defense weapons are destroyed on both battleships. As are the retro thrusters on both sides of the battleships. Your battleship hit Tera-5 with heavy laser fire."

President Grendal looked at Ash, "They are saying they spotted blue laser fire from your ship hitting the station."

Ash laughed, "Lancers all have red lasers. Just the kind of thing Jack wanted to avoid. All the weapons on the scout are dark purple Mr. President. The only blue laser fire is your friendlies. Check the cameras on Tera-5 external from the dock, Pylon 9. Firing on engines. They need to be replaced anyway. You see me?"

He nodded, "Yes." She opened fire and shot out 1 then 2 then 1 and 2 on the next ship. "Any blue laser fire, Mr. President?"

President Grendal shook his head, "No. I am ordering the battleships to stand down before you punch a hole into the engine room. "Lancer-1, status."

Jack laughed, "Still fast-moving. There are eight behind me. Lancer-2?"

She chuckled, "Only 4 left behind me. I am approaching his 8 fast and hot.

She spun and shot out the canopy on 3 of them, before spinning back, "Down to 5 in his set. "Lancer-1 was headed back in the other direction. "I just took out 2 more. What the hell. That battleship just tagged my shields. They are at 20% moving past them."

Ash moved in front of the two battleships and called out, "To the 2 battleships. You were ordered by President Grendal to stand down. Failure to comply will result in you having to evacuate your bridges next. Power down weapons or I will take lethal measures."

Lancer-3 shot back into the fight and parked at point-blank range on BS-2's Bridge, "This is Maid Marian and if you don't stand down, I will bitch slap your bridge BS-2." She pushed the shield against the outer portion of the bridge for emphasis. She hovered. "Lancer-1. Shields up?"

Jack replied, "Totally up, no damage switched to secondary shields. Coming past again." Ash backed away from BS-1 to see what they would do. BS-2 powered down facing Sprits' threat to blow the bridge away.