Shadow Space Chronicles 1: The Fallen Race (28 page)

Half the enemy’s batteries still fired.  The
War Shrike
lurched again at another glancing hit.  Lucius tuned out the damage description, “Focus fire on his rear quarter.  We’ve weakened him there, time to finish him off.”  Later he could think about faces and names, people he’d known who would never have a future.

Sustained fire finally hit something vital and the dreadnought’s defense screen went down.  The
Gebneyr
swept by, underneath, and raked the larger ship from point-blank.  A series of explosions nearly engulfed the smaller ship.

A squadron of Interceptors swept over the top of the larger ship and fired their light guns.  One of the tertiary batteries swatted two of them in return.  Atmosphere and hydrogen fuel leaked from the dreadnought.  Only one main battery still fired.  Kral hammered that one till it too went silent.

The dreadnought finally lay still.

The fight ended so suddenly that Lucius looked around in shock. He saw the crew busy at damage controls and that the immediate battle seemed completed.  Lucius turned his attention to the battle reports and responded with a voice raw from shouted commands.  The Garu secured the remnants of Force Bravo.  Mistress Blanc and her stealthy battlecruiser along with the captured planetary defense centers had Faraday secure.  The remaining Chxor ships of Charlie were either gutted hulks or wreckage.

Lucius let out a deep breath.  “Message to all elements, commence clean up operations.  Rendezvous at Faraday in eight hours.”

***

The hammer-blows on Planetary Governor Kleigh’s flagship had stopped.  Sparking electronics and dim emergency lights left most of his bridge in the shadows.

Kleigh wiped a smear of green Chxor blood off his visor and his hands worked at the straps of his command chair.  His previous emotional detachment felt as hollow and empty as all his previous declarations of emotionless rationality.

Kleigh realized now that Chxor
could
feel emotion.  The hit that had shattered his bridge left him totally unharmed, an untouched center in a whirlwind of destruction.

Kleigh stared at the empty shattered, airless abattoir around him and felt total terror.

The indicator lights on his suit began to blink red.

Two hours later, the Marine boarding party found him, vacuum frozen to his command chair.

Kleigh had neglected to check his suit seals.

***

Lieutenant Jessi Toria rubbed at tired eyes as she monitored her screen.  She loved her ship and crew, but there were times where the long watches grew exhausting.

In particular, she wished her ship was the one chosen to scout out Faraday.  She wanted a chance to prove herself, to test herself.

She knew that the
Mongoose
wasn't up to a full engagement with the Chxor.  For that matter, it was an elderly corvette, built for raids or scouting, not for full combat with warships.  Still, she wanted to make a difference... and to show that her ship could serve as good as any.

“
Ma'am,” Ensign Miller spoke up from the sensor station  “Got something on our sensors.”

Jessi straightened in her chair, “Oh?”  She wondered if it were another mining ship to scare off... or maybe another ambitious pirate.

She gazed at the reading for a moment.  “That's... odd.”  It looked like a drifting asteroid.  But it was hotter than it should be... and it wasn't one of the ones they had already mapped in the system.  For that matter, it had come in way off the elliptic plane, it was lucky they noticed it at all.

“
Yeah,” Ensign Miller said.  “That's what I thought.  So I used one of the sensor platforms to hit it with active radar.  The 'asteroid' knocked out the sensor with a missile.”

“
Shit,” Jessi said.  “What did you get?”

“
Looks like its a ship, trying to run cold and avoid notice.  I'm getting some kind of weird doppler effect, I think it might have some stealth systems but they're not at a hundred percent.

“
Right,” Jessi nodded.  “Estimate on class?”

“
Looks like a destroyer,” he shrugged, “When it goes active, we'll know more.”

She nodded.  They didn't have the capability to launch probes themselves, and the enemy ship had tagged their one sensor platform in that area.  That left her in a jam, though.  The enemy knew they'd been discovered.  They continued on their current course despite that, which suggested that they were either very brave or that they had some other kind of backup.

“I want you to sweep this entire sector,” Jessi said as she highlighted the region.  “Passive sensors only.”

She watched her own tactical screen as the ship coasted closer.  Her own vessel mounted only a single spinal laser and eight missiles on external racks.  The Baron, thankfully, had authorized her to draw two Pilums, in case something truly nasty came calling.  Still, the other six missiles were the light ones they had captured with the ship.  They would be marginally effective against a destroyer... but would barely scratch the paint on anything larger or better armored.

Finally, a second blip appeared on the screen.  “Got them, it is cruiser-sized, ma'am.”  He paused, “I've plotted their course.”

Jessi nodded.  It was pretty much what she had both expected and feared.  Both ships were en route to Alpha Seven.  They had gone engines cold and powered most of their systems down, but they could bring them online with a few moments notice.

Her corvette had no business engaging a cruiser.  She was positioned as a tripwire... yet her corvette had been chosen to remain behind because they couldn't mount an ansible on it, the ship was too small and there wasn't enough room.  The
only
way that she could warn the Baron was to go back and tell him.

At the same time, if she did so, these unknown enemies would have days, possibly weeks, of control over the base.  True, they had already moved the refugees as a precaution, and reduced the base to a caretaker staff.

Still, those people down there needed protection.  The base hadn't been sanitized and still held information on their operations, supplies, and other resources that a pirate might utilize.

Her orders had left her leeway in her response.  She knew that no one would second guess her if she withdrew from the system without a shot fired...

But she also knew that she'd never forgive herself if she abandoned the people down below.  “Alright, here's what we're going to do.”

***

The
Mongoose
coasted still and silent as the two enemy ships continued their own silent approach.  Jessi tapped updated commands on her console even as she made a mental estimation on the enemy course of action.

She had accelerated her ship below the horizon of the airless moon and made use of the gravity well to bring her ship on line with the enemy vessels.  Neither ship had lit off their drives yet, and Jessi wondered if they somehow hoped to sneak into orbit unnoticed.

Regardless, she wouldn't give them that option.

Her optics had identified the larger ship as a Liberator-class cruiser, a standard Colonial Republic class.  It wasn't uncommon for a Colonial Republic officer to go renegade or for their crew to mutiny and turn pirate, she knew.  The ugly, boxy vessel packed far more firepower than Jessi wanted to engage, but she had the advantage with her two missiles... if she got to use them.

The other destroyer continued to elude her tactical section.  She couldn't blame them, plenty of pirates conducted extensive modifications to their ships.  They still had the odd, doppler effect, which Jessi had come to agree must be some kind of stealth system.

“
They will reach initiation point in three minutes,” Ensign Miller said softly.

“
Right,” Jessi took a deep breath.  In theory, the two ships would have to light off their drives and engines at that point in order to take up an orbit.  If they did so, there would be a brief moment when their reactors and drives lit off that their other systems, to include sensors, would operate at reduced efficiency.  Most smaller vessels couldn't operate their defense screens for up to a couple of minutes after they brought their reactors online.

In that window, they would be vulnerable... and that was when Lieutenant Jessi Toria would order her ship to fire.

As the timer wound down, Jessi had a strange moment of disjunction.  Only a year ago, she never would have dreamed that she would be in command of her own warhip... or that she would risk her life for people she had never met.

“
I'm picking up a thermal spike,” Ensign Miller said.  “They're bringing their reactors online!”

Jessi already had both ships bracketed.  She and her weapons officer launched the eight missiles before the last word left the Ensign's mouth.  Two Pilum missiles lanced out towards the Liberator-class cruiser, while the eight lighter warheads sped toward the destroyer.

There was a long moment before the two ships noticed the attack.  “Their weapons are going hot, I'm picking up active radar from both ships!” Ensign Miller said.

Jessi saw that her engineer had begun the start-up process aboard the
Mongoose
.  For a moment, their own sensors lost track. 
Just two minutes until our defense screen comes up...
she thought.

Her sensors cleared to show the missiles on final acquisition.  The enemy destroyer had gone into evasive maneuvers and the cruiser began to do the same.

A moment later, two pinpricks of light signified that both Pilums had detonated.  The electromagnetic hash that filled the sensors cleared to show only a spreading cloud of debris.  Jessi's eyes went to the sensors that showed the destroyer.  It too was enveloped in detonations, and its hulk streamed air as it drifted out a moment later.

Jessi heard a gasp a moment later, “Ma'am, the doppler, it was a second destroyer!”

Head snapped around, ready to give the order for evasive maneuvers... but it was too late.

The second destroyer's volley arrived only seconds behind its emission and struck the
Mongoose
a full minute before the defense screen could come up.

There were no survivors.

***

Lucius's alliance gathered in orbit above Faraday.  The
War Shrike, Peregrine, Gebneyr ,
and the
Rubicon
lay in similar orbits.  All four ships had taken heavy fire, though Lucius had no doubt the others had managed to avoid his extent of damage.

“
We’ve managed to capture two dreadnoughts.” Admiral Collae said.  “I’ve got engines operational on both of them.  They’ll need some yard time, but my men will take them to one of my bases.”

“
We captured two dreadnoughts as well,” the Garu leader said.  Lucius still didn’t know the man’s name.  “Admiral Collae has graciously offered a number of cargo ships he’s acquired in exchange.  We will keep the captured cruisers.”

“
I received a message from an Officer Krath stating he surrenders all remaining Chxor forces on the planet.”  Lucius nodded, “Now, I think, we need to—”

“
Now, Baron Giovanni, I think we need to discuss the distribution of the Dreyfus Fleet.” Admiral Mannetti said.  Her voice had gone sharp.  A glance at her showed a look of thinly veiled hate.

“
Excuse me, Lady Kale?” Lucius asked.

She smiled.  “I tolerated your arrogance and the uneven distribution of the wealth before.  I could even tolerate the amusing notion that these nomadic vagabonds deserved a share.”  Her face was flushed.  “What I will not tolerate is the losses my ships have taken, the drastic losses in my fighter squadrons, for your gain.  I will not accept a third of the Dreyfus Fleet.  Not, at least, when I can have half.”

“What exactly, do you mean by that?” Lucius asked, his voice cold.

Admiral Collae shot her a cold look.  “What she means, I’m afraid, is that we’re renegotiating.”  His craggy face showed nothing, “Though, I think, she spoke sooner than we’d previously discussed.”

“Baron, Admiral Mannetti’s ships just went active.  They’re targeting us.” Anthony Doko’s level voice held a note of tension.

Lucius didn’t look away from the conference screen.  “Both of you, then, are voiding our contract?”

Admiral Collae nodded to someone off screen.  Lucius noted, on his own screen that Collae’s ships, too went active.  “It’s nothing personal.  I actually thought that this went very well, Baron.  It’s just that fifty-fifty is a much better division.”

“
And all of it is better than that?” Lucius asked, eyes going from Mannetti to Collae.

Neither of them so much as twitched, but Lucius could see both had a plan for the other.  “I’ll let you leave, Lucius, and you can keep the cruisers and the dreadnought you’ve captured even.  You fought for and earned those.”

“And Faraday?” Lucius asked.  He typed in a command into his chair’s arm.

“
It’s a well-positioned world.  We’re just off the axis of the Balor advance.  From here I can accomplish much.  I think it will make a good base of operations.” Collae smiled.