Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit (8 page)

Naero nodded to Zhen, who stood
ready to send the recall orders to the fleet.

“Done. What
’s the status?”

“Colony on Haiku-4. About thirty thousand explorers and miners. They
’ve come under sudden heavy attack by unknown invaders using advanced ships and weapons in naval and military formations. Ground assault units in gravarmor and heavy to light hi-tek infantry. Air-superiority fighters and gunships. Those colonists can’t hold out for very long against that kind of military firepower.”

The Flying Dagger
jumped even as they kept talking.

"En route, Klyne. Give me all the data you have on the threat. Tell those colonists to hang in there the best they can. My ship
’s the closest. I’ll arrive in stealth mode and assess the situation within six standard hours. My fleet will arrive and form up one to two hours after that and take the invaders on if we can. How soon can we expect any help from the various navies, Intel, or Alliance forces?”

“I
’m sorry, Naero. That’s why I’m calling on you and your people. Everyone else is still three or four standard days away. The border is just too spread out and expanding too fast.”

“Understood. We wouldn
’t be traveling out this far either, if we hadn’t been trying to link up with Alala. On a secret mission in the middle of nowhere. What about Ingersol and his fleet?”

“Turning about, but they
’ve already jumped twice since you left them. They won’t arrive for a standard day or more. You and your people are it for the time being, I’m afraid. Whatever’s waiting for you at Haiku-4, you’ll have to engage and handle it on your own.”

“Got it. Any secure links with the colonists that can
’t be intercepted?”

“Negative. All com is down and the colony has gone dark. We think our new friends are jamming all attempts to get any info out.”

Great. Just great.

Naero and her fleet raced in blind and alone, against an unknown foe with unknown tek and fighting capabilities.

8

“Enel, take us in slow and quiet,” Naero told her co-pilot.

“All crew, maintain battle stations at the ready. We need to assess the threat and plan a strategy before the fleet arrives. Only half of our ships can cloak, but that will give us some advantage, I hope.”

Haiku-4 was a blue, green, brown and white habitable world, the poles locked in what looked to be an ice age of glaciers. A warmer, more-habitable temperate band around the equator and through the tropics. Four main continents.

But Naero was interested in the small colony of bubble domes burning and smoking on the edge of one sheltered bay on the west coast of the largest land mass. They had been hit pretty hard, and half of the enemy fleet was on world, along with its ground forces.

That left about two dozen bright, blood-red enemy naval vessels patrolling the planet up in the black. All looked to be warships, bristling with spinal guns and secondary batteries.

The enemy looked anything but friendly.

Naero and her people counted two fleet carriers, two strike carriers, four main battleships, four heavy cruisers, and eight destroyers. Four variations of the latter.

The carriers could most likely launch over three hundred fighters.

Oddly enough, the enemy did not even have any fighters out in the black. All down in the atmosphere.

T
o her mind, that made the foe seem very cocky and over confident.

Naero and her people
busied themselves making passive scans of the enemy ships and tek, gathering and transmitting secured data streams back to her people at every step of the way. They also relayed it to Klyne, Ingersol, and Intel.

She called out to her com and sensor array specialist.

“We need more than an initial assessment, Surina. What precisely are we up against?"

“The threat has tek somewhere between ours and the Corps. Main guns are particle beam cannons, supported by secondary batteries of pulse turrets and mass drivers. Level three and four shield generators. Jump ratings ranging between three and five.”

Naero had held her breath.

Good. No ion cannons
at least.

“Enemy fighters seem to be of three similar types: light, medium, and heavy. Capabilities, armaments, ordnance, and performance configurations extremely similar to the Tri
ax Achilles-125D, E, and F variants.”

That both puzzled an
d enraged Naero.

“These things have gotten a hold of Triax tek? Are we up again renegade landers?"

Surina shook her head.

"Negative. The enemy is humanoid, mammalian, and bipedal, but not human. I
’m having trouble getting a lock on their exact species. It may defy description for the time being.”

Zhen called out from her sensor array, scanning the colony.

“En, I think most of the fighting has ended on the surface. From what I can detect from this far away, half of the colonists are already dead from the initial battle. For some reason the enemy is already actively collecting all of the bodies in a very organized and efficient way.”

“Bodies? What do they want with the dead colonists?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps to use them as food? Or if our species is unique enough to them, they might be collecting them to study us. Learn our frailties and weaknesses. How to kill us better. Intel might do the same with the enemy bodies when this is done.”

“Enel, take us down there. We need to see what
’s happening up close. Surina, you said half of the colonists are still alive. What are they doing?”

"Using mining tactics. The few remaining fighters and the surviving
civilians have barricaded themselves deep within a dense pocket of solid bedrock, inside the nearby mountains on the coast.”

“I see. Hoping to hold out until help arrives.”

“Most likely. But the colonists did not have time to cover their tracks. Scans show that they left behind some of the same plasma borers used to make their escape.”

“They probably didn
’t have time to destroy them all.”

“Well, the enemy is currently using the captured mining equipment to bore their way in to get at the survivors.”

The battlefield on site was a burning nightmare.

Several shattered and ruined geodesic bubble domes of the main colony. Completely wiped out.

A small starport with a few burning starships and freighters. Cluttered now with the bright red enemy vessels ringing the shattered colony and vomiting out waves of gravtanks, gunships, and armored troops.

Ruined, cooked-off enemy tanks and shot down enemy gunships. Still burning.

Dead enemy troops in combat and lighter assault armor and masked helmets. Something familiar about those suits and weapons. But as they slowly passed over, it was hard to take everything in.

Sadly, dead colonists too. By the dozens and then hundreds.
Civilians of all types, ages, and descriptions. Cut down in waves as they ran.

“Most of these poor people were caught by surprise,” Naero said, feeling her blood begin to heat up.

“They were trying to flee to the safety of the mountain tunnels, but they didn’t have time to reach them. It all happened so fast, they didn’t know what hit them.”

Surina looked up at her. Zhen too.

“We’ve finished our initial survey of their tek and weapons,” Surina announced. “They’re well-organized, well-armed, and formidable. But our forces should be able to take them down.”

“Something else important to know about them,” Zhen added.

“What’s that, Zee?”

“I
’ve identified their species. They’re all Ejjai. Every one of them.”

Naero stared at her.

“Ejjai? Primative hyaenanoids in these numbers and this well-armed? With a fleet of hi-tek naval warships and all of this military gear?”

Zhen nodded. “Someone has given them some serious uplifting, and unleashed a new, extremely violent and opportunistic in
vasive species on our galaxy.”

Naero took several long minutes to
accept that fact. Who would be stupid enough to do something so reckless? Then she focused on computing and conceptualizing an attack strategy for her fleet that should effectively neutralize the current threat, both in space and onworld.

She beamed the plans secretly to her fleet, and they relayed them to Intel.

In less than a standard hour, the Ejjai invaders would be on the receiving end.

The
n they wouldn’t know what hit them.

Let them see what it was like to engage a true paramilitary force that was a match for them, and not just slaughter helpless colonists.

But the problem was waiting for her forces to arrive.

Currently, she only had one small ship, and less than two dozen crew
–against an entire alien invasion force.

Surina put something up on the main view screen.

“Captain, you’d better take a look at this.”

Everyone saw a strange, block-like ship, unlike any of the
other warships. Like a red flattened cube, but with several armored hatches and loading bays flung open in various directions.

Even weirder, the Ejjai bustled up and down the ramps like planetary army ants, carrying in and loading up the dead bodies of the colonists, and even their own dead, and piling them into the cube.

“What the hell kind of ship is that?” Naero asked. “What are they doing? And what is that red dome-like structure behind it?”

Both structures were unlike anything they had yet encountered among the invaders.

“They are in fact both starships, of some kind of specialized purpose,” Surina said. “Doctor, I’ll scan the cube. You scan the dome. Let’s see what they’re doing inside.”

“I
’m on it,” Zhen said, staring at her sensor array intently. “Note that there is another cube, and another dome exactly like these, landing where the enemy is using the mining plasma borers to get at the remaining colonists.”

Naero brought her eyes down to slits.

None of that sounded good.

“Bloody hell,” Surina exclaimed.

At the same time, Zhen gasped and put her hand to her mouth.

“What are those
strange ships?” Naero demanded.

Surina turned about, her own face very pale. “Captain. The cube
vessel is a fully automated, robotic meat-processing plant.”

Naero
’s mouth fell open briefly. She checked the screen.

The Ejjai flung everything into the meatship. Including those on both sides that were only wounded, and still alive.

Until the automated processors ripped and sliced them apart, and processed them into stored units of future food rations for the Ejjai shock troops. “They’re going to process all the colonists into food units,” Naero said.

Zhen attempted to chime in. “Naero, it gets worse. I
’ve figure out what the dome ships are. The enemy is–”

“Tell me later, Zee,” Naero said, cutting her off. “These meatships are bad enough. Prepare all batteries to open fire on my mark. We
’re taking these things out right here and now. That dome ship too.”

Enel protested. “You can
’t do that, Captain. You’ll give away our position. Our forces aren’t here yet.”

“We
’ll be sitting ducks!” Tarim said.

Surina suddenly looked even more fearful. Her eyes as big as ship portals. Her white face grew even paler.

“Captain, the enemy will break in on the trapped colonists in the mountain tunnels very soon. What do we do?”

9

Naero
’s ship only possessed twelve suits of stealth armor. Combat armor with personal cloaking devices built in.

Enough to field one complete fire team.

Using the stealth suits, Naero and Tarim commanded their team to leave the ship on gravwings and plant mines and demolition charges all over the enemy meatship and the dome behind it.

The rest of the crew remained on board the
cloaked flagship, ready for anything.

Once they finished planting the charges here, they would go over to the other cube and dome by the mountains and
repeat the process.

Then they could destroy all four enemy ships without exposing their presence or position, and figure out what to do next while they waited for help to arrive.

The only problem being, that while they were in stealth mode, they couldn’t see their own cloaked flagship once they left it, or even each other. If they got into trouble somehow, they were each on their own.

While Naero planted her mines and charges, she ran across two Ejjai Alphas laughing and chortling on a loading ramp below her.

The sound of eerie Ejjai, gagging laughter was horrifying, multiplied and echoed among a victorious invading army of the monsters.

She could only imagine what a terrible effect it had had on the poor
beleaguered colonists, when they heard it descending upon them.

The alphas tore bloody meat off the corpses being hauled into the meatship and gulped the awful t
idbits down at random. They seemed ravenous.

One alpha grinned its wide, toothy grin. “Yeah, we
’ll have the others for the meatships soon. Won’t be long now. Our girls are cracking those mountains open like eggs. We’d better finish up here and hurry over there quick–
to get our share of the human young
.”

The other one chortled with laughter. “Yeah, we
’ve killed most of the fighting males and females. The rest will be easy prey. I can’t wait.”

“Humans,” the first sneered and the
n spat. “What species in their right mind lets their males do their fighting for them? No wonder we overwhelmed them so quickly.”

The second rubbed her claws together in
glee. “Next we separate and kill all of the remaining males and the old.”

“Phaugh!” the first spat again. “Who in the hell wants old meat?
Toss ‘em in the meatships. Why do these fools keep their old around anyway? Give me their young to gobble on while they’re still screaming.”

“Then we cull out and kill all of the adult females. And next, any younglings old enough to resist.”

Now the first imitated her cohort, working her clawed hands together in mouth-watering anticipation of the coming, horrific feast.

“I
’m going to claim a female human swollen with child. First I’ll break her arms and legs. Then I’ll tear her belly open with my teeth and feast on the warm meat inside her…while she sings to me for my supper!”

“Finally we
’ll be left with the very young to feast on, for a few days while we strip this place clean. You’ll enjoy how their little helpless eyes stare up at you before you tear into them.”

The two creatures chortled again.

“Yeah, I can’t wait.”

Naero resisted the
very strong urge to kill them both right there.

She had fought Ejjai before and knew very well what brutal killers they were.
No doubt in her mind what they were like, and what they would do. By their own words.

When the
enemy ships exploded, these two and the rest of the monsters would get theirs.

The first leg of the
ir mission only took half a standard hour to complete.

They placed their charges, and all twelve troops returned safely to
The Dagger.

They moved on to the
nearby mountains and the other two enemy ships. Another blood-red, cube-like meatship and another domeship, just like the others.

The stealth team began planting their charges like before.

Yet this time, explosions and sounds of intense fighting came from deep within the tunnels.

Smoke poured out from several hidden vents. Even flames.

Naero and her people shuddered, hearing the scream of thousands within.

Then, even worse, things got quiet, and the Ejjai troops massed around the tunnel entrances.

Finally a tremendous uproar of Ejjai cheering and twisted laughter rang throughout the valley in alien triumph.

As the victorious invaders drove and dragged the captured civilians blinking and cringing into the sunlight by the hundreds. Very few men, mostly women, the old, and children. Lots of children.

Naero couldn’t stand it any longer.

She punched in orders on her com unit.

Enough of this. Get back to the ship. Everyone load up on squad weapons, grenades, and shield units. When these ships go up, we’re taking these bastards down.

No objections.

Her people knew what was going to happen, and they were ready to fight.

Already the Ejjai fought with each other over the kids, and especially any
pregnant women or babies. While the rest of the troops began separating the adult males and females and the old.

Agonizing seconds later, both the enemy meatship and the enemy domeships exploded, just as victims were being driven up the ramps.

Multiple grenade strikes rocked the packed Ejjai forces, adding to the dismay and utter confusion.

Naero and her
fire team uncloaked, putting as many of the colonists behind them and their squad weapons as they could. Each of them unleashed a storm of point-blank automatic fire right into the teeth and face of the Ejjai, mowing them down.

Civilians
of any age who could pick up a fallen Ejjai weapon did so and joined the desperate fight, rallying around the Spacers.

From a high, clear vantage point, Tarim remained cloaked
, under Naero’s orders.

He and
his advanced, silent sniper rifle picked off enemy stragglers, officers, or any foes among the colonists who tried to pop up and attack.

For the moment they had saved most of the remaining colonists and swept the field.

But the remaining bulk of the enemy would quickly regroup.

“Get the children and anyone who can
’t fight back into those tunnels!” Naero shouted. “Everyone who can fight, grab a weapon and hold the line. Help is on the way. We need to hold this position for as long as we can!”

“Incoming armor on the scanners, converging on this position!” Pasaendra yelled. “Gravtanks and gunships. Get those shield generators online or we
’re dead.”

The shields went up just before the first barrage hit them.

Anything out in the open or outside of the shield perished in exploding fire.

The enemy starships tried to launch.

The Flying Dagger
finally uncloaked, swinging and swerving in a wide, evasive circle, strafing the enemy ships still trapped on the ground.

Pausing to concentrate fire on any ship trying to lift off until it fell burning back, to the surface.

Two enemy vessels filled with ordnance and gear began to cook off.

Then Enel and the crew came straight at the foe, strafing the packed lines of gravtanks and gunships
converging on the tunnels.

With its shields up,
The Dagger
even rammed into an entire wing of enemy gunships, and dipped down to gouge a bloody smear through the advancing enemy infantry hordes.

Then it cloaked again.

The enraged Ejjai went mad.

They poured every type of fire at the area around the tunnel entrances.

One by one, the defender’s shield generators disrupted and flared out.

And layer after layer of their defenses withered and dissolved.

The Dagger
made two more attack runs, driving the enemy forces back.

Then enemy fighters swarmed down out of the sky from the carriers in orbit and chased it off in hot pursuit.

Naero looked at their last two generators.

“Retreat back into the tunnels. We
’ll bring them down behind us!”

Even as they fell back, one generator failed and burst into smoke and fire.

The insane Ejjai swept toward them to try to cut them off, scores of them running into the teeth of their own fire.

Naero turned at bay.

They could not be overrun. Not now.

“Stand and
fight! "she commanded. “Hold this line!”

Everyone who could still lift a weapon rallied around her and the last shield generator.

Naero hurled every last grenade she carried.

Her blaster rifle clicked empty.

She flung it down and drew both blaster pistols. Emptying them rapid-fire into the swarming mass of Ejjai faces.

When they were out, she drew her energy cutlass and battle blade.

She took one step forward, screaming.

“Come on, you Ejjai bitches
!”

For a second, the enemy
horde hesitated.

Then they looked up in wide-eyed fear and fell back.

Waves of Spacer Ghost Dragons and other fighter squadrons from Naero’s trade fleet filled the sky, sweeping in low to gun down any enemy ship or vehicle that dared show itself.

Spacer starships modified for ground-attack mode surrounded the trapped enemy and walked in on them, crushing and pulverizing them out in the open.

The Ejjai invasion force withered and died.

The invaders knew they were dead, but a last knot of heavily armored enemy troops made one last drive on Naero
’s position in an attempt to overrun it.

Just as a Spacer assault force of hundreds of gravwing troops in combat armor descended from the sky.

A sheet of interlocking weapon-fire tore into the foe.

Naero caught a glimpse of several other captains coming to her rescue, led my Max Lii
. Who mowed down Ejjai with sonic blasts from his roaring kitar, unleashed in full battle mode.

The Ejjai general charged straight at Naero,
snorting at the air and wielding two energized broadswords.

“Die, spack bitch!”

“Not today!”

Naero flip-kicked into her, sweeping wave kicks battering her, driving the enemy general back. Flashing into her from all sides. Knocking one broadsword
spinning away.

Naero cut the general
’s belly wide open, and then split her foe’s head down the center, lodging her cutlass deep into the gushing torso and heart.

Seconds later, the remaining invaders were completely swept away
in a torrent of fire.

Naero sagged
to the ground, a jolt of sudden agony in her skull crippling her without warning.

She couldn
’t get up off her hands and knees, and nearly fell over.

Finally in the confusion, a pregnant colonist and her young daughter rushed to her side and helped her back up to her feet.

“Are you hurt?” the mother asked, looking her over.

“I…don
’t think so.”

“Thank you,” the mother told her. “
I don’t know who you people are, but may heaven reward you for saving us from these creatures. Without all of you, they would have murdered us for certain. We will never forget what you did for us, champion.”

The young daughter went back and pulled Naero
’s cutlass free and returned it to her hands.

“You are a great warrior. I watched you fight
,” the young girl said with great admiration. “You never gave up. You’re just like Shettana; you even look like her!”

Who? What was the girl talking about?

“We can never thank you enough.”

First the daughter, then the mother knelt and kissed her hands.

Naero felt enough strength and control return to her that at least she could remain standing and walk.

The rescued colonists poured out of the tunnel and rejoiced, cheering and thanking their rescuers profusely.
Many others looked to be injured or in shock still.

Naero
took in all the devastation and carnage the enemy invaders had wrought around them.

Fleets of uplifted Ejjai invading the fringes? Meatships.
What in the hell was going to happen next?