The Valhalla Call (Warrior's Wings) (35 page)

“You think they’re drone ships then?”

“No, no.” Sorrilla shook her head. “I think they’re doorways.”

*****

“Captain! The target ship has lost all acceleration!”

Roberts rose bolt upright from his chair,
By Gods, she did it!

He hadn’t been in love with the plan, had actively thought it lunacy from the start. A small squad of boarders, no matter how heavily armed, wasn’t taking over a ship. Oh, he knew that they didn’t plan to
take over
anything—the idea was to disable and tow it home, in essence. Even so, it seemed ludicrous, but here they were. The only thing that had ever killed the acceleration of these monsters in the past was massive degrees of overkill, and they hadn’t struck it with a shot!

“Re-adjust maneuvering plans around the remaining ship! Close range and take that bastard out of my
sky
!”

“Aye, sir! Adjusting course calculations!”

The two ships had been playing one off the other, forcing him to keep his ships back as they covered each other’s blind spots too well, but now he could close the range. With only one warship and a few of the smaller Ghoulie ships defending, it would shortly be over.

“Target the remaining warship and saturate her defenses. I want them
gone
.”

*****

Task Force Valkyrie had been working together for a long time, for the most part. There were new people assigned since the new ships had come from the slips, but the commanders, captains, and senior officers had all been drawn from the ranks of Valkyrie veterans at Admiral Brooke’s request. Her reasoning was simple: People who trusted each other, and their commanders, worked better in the heat of the moment.

So now, with clear orders and an opening to pursue, every ship in the taskforce lunged into the mix with clear intent and obvious zeal. Their rail gun tubes glowed red with residual heat from Hammer launches, and they kept firing as they charged. The alien point defense system was effective, but all systems had a saturation point, and with only one ship left that seemingly packed the beam weapon that had destroyed the Olympus, the end of the fight was a forgone conclusion.

Valve countermeasures swamped the area around the ships as the taskforce closed, and with those came an end to the point defense. The remaining Ghoulie ships withered under a tidal barrage that tore their ships asunder, leaving one lone Ghoulie ship floating dead in space with Valkyrie arrayed around it.

The urge to celebrate only lasted a few moments, however, because the instant their computers had more cycles for crunching numbers not related to battle, alarms wailed across every ship in the force.

*****

“
Now
what?” Roberts hissed, striding across the bridge.

They’d just eliminated their targets, captured an alien space ship, and the alarms choose
then
to wail? It just wasn’t right, by God. There should be some sort of break between crises!

“Incoming contacts, Captain! Moving at medium relativistic speeds and climbing! We’re running calculations now, sir, but they can’t be more than a couple hours out, if that,” the scanner tech said tersely. “My god, there’s a lot of them.”

“How many?”

“Thirty we’ve identified so far, count is climbing.”

Roberts closed his eyes. To have come so close and now… He opened his eyes. “Can we outrun them to the jump point?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

“Get me the admiral.”

*****

Nadine Brooke could feel the bottom dropping right out of her stomach as she looked at the numbers. They’d know that there was such a fleet out and about, of course, and she’d been ready and committed to engaging them to the last to defend Earth space, but they had been
so
close to accomplishing one of the primary tasks and now…

Now she didn’t know.

She had to make a decision, and it had to be made now, because if they were to try and get back to the jump point…either to defend it or to attempt to disrupt it, they had to move now.

“Contact Aida’s team. Tell them to get the hell out of there,” she decided. “We’re abandoning the mission.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

*****

On the alien ship, Francis Bean couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Say again, Legendary? We just stopped this sucker
dead
, that’s what we were sent to do, and now you want us to
leave
it here?”

Lieutenant Aida had just reappeared with Carson in tow, and she was climbing into her machine as Bean objected. The Zero One Unit shuddered back into action, rising to its feet as Sorilla brought it back online.

“What’s going on?” she demanded, noting that the tactical network was lit up, most of it with
colorful
language.

“Legendary just ordered us to ditch and run!”

“What?” Sorilla blurted. “Why? No, never mind. Legendary, this is Aida.”

“Lieutenant, get your team out of there. We have a fleet inbound, and we can’t spare any more time. If you’re not moving in thirty seconds, we’ll have to leave you!”

“Shit!” Sorilla blurted, kicking her team into action. “Roger, Legendary, we’re on the move. What is going on? I need to recover my second group before we can abandon this heap!”

“Forty-plus enemy battleships inbound, Lieutenant. The admiral says we’re moving, so we’re moving.”

“Everyone, move it!” Sorilla ordered, mind racing as she kicked her team into gear. “Anyone see any more of the Golems?”

“There were two firing on us a few minutes ago, El-Tee, but they just shut down for no reason.”

Controlled from home, then. Drones, not people. Probably.
She wasn’t sure, something was gnawing at her, like she had part of the answer but was missing a key piece of the puzzle. Sorilla shook it off, she’d work it out later.

“Roger that. Belt it, boys, we need to pick up team two and haul ass!”

“You mean we did this shit for nothing, El-Tee?”

Sorilla grinned, a death’s head grin. “Oh hell no. We learned a
lot,
soldier. They may get to keep the ship, but I think they’d almost have rather lost it in the fight. Does anyone have contact with team two?”

“Negative, ma’am. Lost contact when they went in deep.”

“Damn it,” Sorilla swore. “Okay, the ship is quiet. You guys get the hell out of here. I’ll find them and be right on your tail.”

“Like hell, Sister,” Frank told her in no uncertain terms. “We all get off this heap or none of us do.”

Sorilla grimaced, but honestly, they didn’t have time to fight.

So the team thudded down the hall, not even attempting to negotiate stealthily through the ship, and at the branch where they had to pick between heading for the outside or finding their missing teammates, they didn’t hesitate. They ran deeper into the ship, intent on finding the others.

“Lieutenant Aida, Legendary. Your signal is breaking up. We can’t wait any longer, the enemy ships are too close! You have to get out of that ship!”

Sorilla glanced to either side at the Titans running alongside her, then over her shoulder. The others just nodded back, the big helmet-shaped heads of the war machines bobbing with certainty. Sorilla sighed, but nodded back.

“Legendary, Aida. Get out of here,” she said. “We’ll hold the ship as long as we can. Send the Socrates back for us if you can.”

“Lieutenant…”

“We’re
not
getting off here in time. Get your butts moving before that fleet gets onto you!” Sorilla swore. “They’re not going to blow us out of the sky! We’re in one of
their
ships! Just don’t forget us!”

There was a long silence before the controller’s voice came back.

“Understood, Lieutenant Aida. Wilco and out.”

“Legendary! Am transmitting
vital
intel. Confirm receipt!” Sorilla sent urgent, sending everything she’d recorded while in the enemy command center, along with as much of her speculations as she could. “Say again Legendary, confirm receipt!”

There was a long pause before the Legendary came back, “Receipt confirmed. Admiral says good work and god’s speed, Lieutenant. Legendary out.”

The channel went dead then, and Sorilla looked around at the men of her team.

“Well, we’re now the proud owners of an alien battleship. Cheers.”

The laughter from the group was a relief, though she could hear the undercurrent of strain as well. Sorilla didn’t know if she’d made the right choice, but it was the right choice for her. Whether it was the right one for her men…well, that was something she didn’t think she’d ever be able to say. She knew one thing, however: As a sergeant she’d not have run out on half her team, be damned to the consequences.

She sure as hell wasn’t going to start as a lieutenant.

*****

At 800 gravities, you lost sight of things in your rearview in a hurry, but Admiral Brooke found herself staring at an empty bit of space that had once held an alien spacecraft and rethinking every decision she’d made to this point.

Valkyrie was running hard now, but their enemy had the lead time and they were going to get caught. It was just a question of picking the ground upon which they’d made a stand. Likely, their last stand.

The enemy fleet—and it was a fleet, of that there was no doubt—consisted of more than three times the number of this at her command. In open space, going toe to toe, Valkyrie didn’t stand a chance even with a full load out, which they simply no longer had. The fight with the few enemy ships they had just conquered had bled their munitions down to a little over half, and that didn’t bode well for their chances against an enemy fleet, even if it did consist of ships of a different class.

No, our only chance is to make the jump point before them and try to bolt back to Hayden or, more likely, make our stand at the jump point itself.

That last option tore at her, because she didn’t have a good solution there.

They could expend the rest of the gravity pulse devices, disrupt the jump point, and try to block or delay the enemy further, but they weren’t at a choke point. The most it would do was extend the enemy supply lines by another jump or two, and at this point that hardly mattered.

They’re going to get past us,
Brooke thought with a cold pit forming in her stomach.

Honestly, that made her feel a little less horrible about leaving Aida and her team on that ship. The odds were they’d live longer than those on Valkyrie. Maybe the Socrates would even pick them up. Anything was possible.

Valkyrie, however, was outnumbered at the least, and possibly outclassed…though, she’d defy anyone to say that to her face and make it stick. At three to one, though, she didn’t see an out for her people.

She looked over the numbers, recognizing that the overtake was going to be…close.

We’re going to be on the jump point when they intercept… Can I use that?

They’d been exposed to incoming fire for a time before that, but she focused more on the jump point as well as the new math she’d learned from Aion. If it checked out, not that she’d have a chance to test it, then maybe…

Oh my.

Brooke stared at the numbers for a long moment, then reached to her console to open a squadron-wide conference with her captain.

I hope they can forgive me for this. All of them.

Parath swore as reports began to filter in from the captured alien ship.

The fighting had turned furious after the aliens landed their assault craft, unsurprisingly perhaps, but for now it was contained to the lower decks of the ship. The Lucians would hold it as long as possible, of that he had no doubt, but he was facing significant problems of his own above and beyond that.

The alien squadron had been unrelenting, likely because they were well aware that if he could shake any of his forces loose he could end the assault on the captured ship in a few moments for all intents and purposes.

He’d lost four of his best ships, and three others were likely headed for the breakers even if they survived this engagement. In return, of course, he’d inflicted five totally destroyed alien ships and likely crippled another. The aliens were fast, but lacked maneuverability compared to the Parithalian ships, and once they’d moved away from the alien ship, they were no longer pinned against it in some futile defense that had come into play on their side.

It was going to be a disastrous engagement, however, no matter how he looked at it.

Even so, Parath steeled himself to bleed the enemy here while he could. Every ship he eliminated here was one less that could be marshaled in defense of the alien world he and his had been tasked with taking. The Master of Fleets had the main group less than three jumps from the nexus world, and once he took that world, they’d have full access to the rest of the galactic arm beyond it.

Even if Parath and his were to fall here, the Alliance would emerge in a solid position to end this foolish conflict and, hopefully, learn precisely what the Ross’El were up to at the same time.

“Instruct the Victory to watch their dorsal flank,” he called. “They have one of the alien ships maneuvering to get in the blind section of their weapons!”

“Yes, Master!”

These people learn fast. Too damned fast.

He was perspiring, though the deck was cooled to just below what most would consider comfortable. The conflict was taking every bit of his focus, and far too much of his time.

Master of Fleets, end this as you can. These people will cost us much more if we do not finish this while we have the advantage.

*****

With the Main Fleet

The Master of Fleets stood on the deck of his flagship, the Everlasting Glory, and glowered out at the ships fleeing from them. They’d happened on the enemy fleet just as it finished eliminating the small contingent of Ross’El ships that had proceeded ahead of him against orders from Master of Ships Parath. The loss of the Ross vessels was no loss, but it was still an act that had to be answered for.

“Approaching weapon ranges, Master of Fleets.”

“You may instruct the ships to fire as they can,” he said, a regal tilt to his sharply defined features.