Shadow Space Chronicles 1: The Fallen Race (11 page)

There were four dreadnoughts.  They swept in-system arrogantly, escorted by a dozen light cruisers.  The cruisers deployed so as to intercept any fire on the dreadnoughts with their own hulls.  Lucius never understood what went through the minds of the Chxor when they decided to make only the two classes of warships.  It did make a sort of weird logic that mass-produced defense ships could screen mass produced attack ships.  He knew --from experience of tearing apart the unwieldy formation-- that it didn’t always work.  The Chxor just thought too slowly and reacted too slowly to change.  With two wings of fighters and his own ship to lure the enemy around, Lucius could bleed the enemy dry, smash their offensive ships to scrap and then run slashing attacks against the largely unarmed cruisers.

He sighed, though.  Lucius possessed only three full squadrons, and didn’t have the time.  If that task force cleared the gas giants they would pick up the civilian transmissions.  Chxor doctrine from that point would take them directly to the planet.  The Chxor would assist the populace in seeing things their way.  Perhaps they would only use threats, but probably they would utilize nerve gas attacks or tactical nukes and swiftly turn it into a Chxor outpost.  From there they would begin to 'process' the populace and import Chxor colonists to replace them.

“
Fifteen seconds till full power to engines.” That was the calm call from Lt. Meridan, at the engineering station.  Commander Harbach was in the engine room.

“
Main weapons up in ten seconds.”  Lieutenant Beeson announced from his station.

“
Life Support and Medical systems online and stable,” Dr. Varene murmured.  She had taken the position as the ship's doctor, a slot which had been empty for over a year.  Lucius had been impressed with her background and experience and she'd been of tremendous benefit in treatment of his injured crew thus far.

“
Communications and Electromagnetic Countermeasure systems fully operational.” Lieutenant Palmer drawled.  He was a very adept user of both systems, but his nasal twang drove Lucius to distraction at odd times, such as when he was worrying about an upcoming engagement.  He'd served in the Centauri Confederation fleet, and claimed he came from Earth, though Lucius felt certain that his accent had to be an affectation.

“
Astrogation and Helm at standby, damage control teams are ready, and all Battle Support systems are standing by, Captain.” Doko said with crisp perfection.

“
Alright,” Lucius took a deep breath,  preparing to “let’s be—“

“
Sir, intercepting a message to the Chxor!” Lieutenant Palmer snapped.  “Originating from Faraday, I’m patching it in, sir.”

“…
again would like to welcome you to the Faraday System.  We understand you are in pursuit of a pirate vessel known as the
War Shrike
.  It has looted our world and now lies in orbit at these coordinates-“

Lucius overrode the signal, “Find me the origin of the broadcast.  Jam the frequency.”  He brought up a line to the office of the Contractor.  “What are your people doing down there, someone is broadcasting a message to the Chxor, if they’ve heard—”

The Contractor shook her head in resignation.  “The Shareholders met in an emergency meeting.  They’ve deposed me.  They have decided to bargain with the Chxor, for Faraday’s surrender.”  Her shoulders slumped in defeat, “The fools think they can bribe them off.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the tactical section had updated the Chxor squadron's course.  The icons of the Chxor forces had changed heading to one that would be a least-time run to the planet.  Lucius swore savagely, “I’ll launch shuttles to the surface, I’ll evacuate who I can.”

“The Shareholders and the Contractor will prohibit anyone from leaving,” she answered tiredly.

“
They can’t prohibit my Marines, and there will be a team on each shuttle to provide escort.  Get your people moving, get landing coordinates to Lieutenant Naevius so he can order the shuttle pilots and escort them down.”

She nodded, some light of hope returned to her eyes.  “I won’t be able to get many, but some people will listen.”

Lucius brought up a screen to Cato Naevius, “The Contractor is getting you landing coordinates for your shuttles, launch them as soon as you have them.”  As he spoke he typed orders to Colonel Proscia for the team’s deployments.

He looked at the screen again and then sighed and opened a channel to Burbeg.  “There has been a change in plans.”

***

Lieutenant Jessi Toria grimaced as the shuttle settled into one of the only clear areas on the spaceport.  A sea of people had washed over the normally empty expanse of stained concrete.  “Sergeant Ferch, get your team out there and try and put some order into this.”

She was a ship's officer, not a Marine, but the Baron had sent her down with the shuttles to take charge of the evacuation.  She would rather be aboard the
War Shrike
, doing what she had trained to do... yet at the same time, she felt a surge in pride that the Baron had selected
her
to be in charge of such an important task.

She heard the Marine NCO bark out orders and she turned her gaze to the south, where the expanse of the refugee ships and shanty-town lay.

She could see a hive of activity around several of those ships.  The Baron hadn't specifically said to warn them, but she'd messaged them on the way down.  Those were
her
people, not the swarm of Faraday citizens that surrounded the shuttle.

But she'd do her duty by them anyway.

***

It didn't take long for the first problem to come up.

“
We have to charge them for passage, how are we going to make anything off this otherwise?” The irate freighter captain sputtered.

Jessi recognized the voice of the Contractor, but only from the news, “Mister Ganske, we have a lot of people to load and not much time...”

Jessi stepped forward through the crowd, flanked by Sergeant Ferch and two of his Marines.  “What's the problem here?”

“
Mister Ganske is refusing to allow anyone to board before receiving payment for passage.  He also refuses to lift off without guidance from someone at Schultz Enterprises.”  Lieutenant Toria felt a sudden spurt of jealousy for how the politician managed to make her voice clearly heard through the crowd.

Jessi looked between the Contractor, surrounded by a half dozen security guards and the ship's captain, who stood with a man whom she assumed was his first officer.  The woman she'd seen before on the news, the only politician of which she felt even the slightest respect, stood calm.  She met the Lieutenant's brown eyes with a calm gaze of her own.

The ship's captain's florid face was flushed with anger.  His mouth hung open in a bovine expression of either stupidity or shock at the very idea not extorting people in need.

Lieutenant Toria felt her own face flush.  Her nostrils flared, “Mister Ganske, you will allow these people to board or you will be forcibly removed and you can seek other means off this planet.”

“You can't do this, I'm the Captain of this vessel and it is owned by Schultz Enterprises!  We have laws here!”  The captain's jowls waggled back and forth as he spoke.  Lieutenant Toria thought of the captain of the refugee ship she had come to Faraday aboard.  Captain Nyguyen had shared his last ration bar with the hungry young girl who had lost her parents.

“
Sergeant Ferch, remove Mister Ganske from the spaceport area,” Jessi turned to face Ganske's first officer, “Mister Floyd, do you feel you can work with us?”

The other man watched his former captain as a Marine dragged him away, “Yes, Lieutenant, I think I can.”

Lieutenant Toria felt a bit of the tension ease in her gut.  “Excellent, start loading these people.”  She nodded at the Contractor, “Ma'am.”

“
Thank you for your assistance... Lieutenant?”

“
Yes, Ma'am.  Not a problem, the Baron sent us to help.  Excuse me,” Lieutenant Toria turned away as her com unit chimed.  She felt sudden gratitude for the interruption, “Yes?”

“
Ma'am, we just got a message from Ensign Tascon over at the factory.  He says that a number of people have shown up and they're requesting passage.  He's told them to seek passage on the refugee ships, but they said some of the ships aren't space-worthy.”

Jessi swept her eyes across the mass of people gathered at the spaceport.  They might,
might,
all fit aboard the ships gathered here now.

She felt an icy hand grip her heart.  She fought off the sudden urge to order the Marines to clear out enough room for the people she'd grown up with.  She opened up a channel to Tascon, “What's the status of the loading of the machinery?”

“
I can't get any more with these damned people here in the way,” Tascon said.

Jessi's eyes narrowed, “Ensign, make room for those people.”

“What?” Tascon said.  She could almost see his olive-toned face with the automatic arrogance she so hated.  “The Captain ordered me to load up the machinery from the factory.”

Jessi closed her eyes.  For a moment, she prayed for the patience to deal with any further situations.  She shouldn't have felt surprise at Tascon's... difficulty grasping the situation.  She hadn't missed the fact that he was the only of the Baron's officers to
not
receive promotion since their arrival here.  In the rapid brief she'd received from the Baron, he'd made it clear that he wanted the Ensign at the factory was to avoid situations where his arrogance might cause an issue.

Machinery, by and large, didn't take offense.

Jessi focused on her commander's calm voice.
How would the Baron handle this?
“Ensign, that machinery is replaceable.  Those people are not.  Have them unload whatever cargo necessary and board the transports immediately.” 

“
I should ask the Captain--”

“
Baron Giovanni is preparing for a battle, Ensign, he doesn't have time to hold your hand.  Follow my orders, or I'll have the Marines over there do so.” 
And then,
she thought,
I'll bring your ass on charges so fast your head will spin.

“
Yes, ma'am,” The Ensign's sullen voice answered.

Toria let out a deep breath and turned to face the orderly lines of refugees as they boarded.  Her eyes caught on the face of a little girl, who held hands with her mother and father as they moved up the line.

Her own memories flashed back to her childhood.  To the mad scramble where her mother had tearfully pushed her into the arms of a stranger just before the doors had closed.

That would not happen today
, she thought,
not if I can do anything about it
.

***

The three squadrons of fighters swept in on the flank of the Chxor cruisers. 

Since there was no longer the option to lure the Chxor away, Lucius had gone with the decision to bloody their forces enough to, hopefully, stop pursuit.  He’d pulled in all of his fighters for this strike, in a hope to crack some of the Chxor defenses.  He had staged them and the makeshift carrier in the shadow of one of the small moons of a gas giant, which made it unlikely that the Chxor would track them back to their origin.

The fighters took only sporadic intercepting fire, none of it near the mark.  They launched their missiles in one crippling point-blank salvo that lashed through the gaps in the overlapping cruisers’ defense screens to slam home on the hulls of the vessels.   The three targeted ships took multiple hits from the eighteen fighters.

The two hundred sixteen missiles in the initial burst exploded in one long chain.  The cruisers were designed to take and absorb damage.  Their massive, flat planar screens were magnetically sealed bands of plasma fifteen millimeters thick.  The hulls were heavily armored against missiles, lasers, and even projectile weapons.

If Cato Naevius's squadrons carried the heavier Pilum missiles, any of those hits would have gutted a cruiser.  The effect of that many light missiles startled even Lucius.

Lucius heard snarls of satisfaction from the pilots as the warheads detonated in a chain of explosions that rocked those three ships.

One cruiser bucked as three of its ten engine pods ripped apart.  Plasma vented and power couplings ruptured and detonated to rip larger holes in the hull.  The second vessel rocked with the explosions, the crippled ship staggered through the inferno.  Video from the recon probes showed secondary decompression and fires raging on the ship.

The third Chxor cruiser shuddered from several secondary explosions.  The ship continued on without any visible sign of further damage for several seconds.  Then the defense screens flickered.  The engines stuttered.  A single bright flare engulfed the entire vessel.  Seconds later, only a field of debris remained. 
Fusion reactor overload,
Lucius thought to himself,
lucky hit on that one.

The three squadrons wheeled away, their ordinance expended.  They could have gone in on strafing runs with their plasma cannons, but Lucius ordered them out, satisfied with the results.