43
Earth
Alliance Heavy Cruiser Lexington
Near Eridani system
Earth
Alliance Border.
"All hands be advised, hyperspace exit in
ten minutes." A gently modulated electronic voice announced. "Ten
minutes to destination."
It was the standard warning for the
ships crew to prepare for the entry into normal space which usually
meant standing ready at defence stations. So far Earth Force hadn't
been able to find a way to scan through the hyperspace barrier with
anything more than a tiny beam of Tachyons, which worked to send
messages but was useless as a method of seeing if an enemy ship was
waiting just outside the Jump gate. As a result it was standard
practice for Earth Force ships to be prepared for any eventuality
when they returned to normal space, even in safe areas.
This time
however there was a little urgency to the crew not normally seen
because this time they knew that there could be trouble waiting for
them. When they arrived they would find themselves face to face with
a Dilgar task force holding in the Earth controlled system centred on
a Dreadnought with a full escort of cruisers and escorts. The base
had given a number of thirty ships, many more than Earth Force had
expected but in hindsight understandable. The Dilgar had been forced
to travel through Narn space to reach this distant world and while
the Narn were staunchly neutral they were also known to be not
entirely trustworthy.
Never the less, the ships were here now and
were patiently awaiting the arrival of the diplomatic team sent from
Earth to handle this situation. The meeting was being kept extremely
secret for now with no word of it mentioned to the people of the
Alliance or their allies, at least not until the truth of this
meeting was established. The initial transmission had simply asked
for a meeting to discuss a treaty of non-aggression which had rather
taken President Hauser by surprise. Director Durban of the EIA had
informed him the Narn had a similar arrangement and it seemed the
Dilgar were going to make an effort to buy Earth off with peace. Or
at least a piece of paper.
In many ways a piece of paper was more
deadly than a fleet of warships, if made immediately public it could
lull the Senate into a false sense of security slashing the military
budget and making Earth unable to defend itself based simply on a
Dilgar promise. Hauser did not especially like the idea of that so
made sure his negotiation team was the best he could assemble backed
up by the EIA and as much covert intelligence as they could find.
Even now the Director had his new ship heading to Krish to gather
information that could be used to test the honesty of the Dilgar
position. Until that mission was finished the orders were to keep the
Dilgar talking.
"Still think this is a bad idea my friend?"
The grey haired man wondered.
Ambassador Sir Richard Grenville was
living in the wrong century. His clothing looked like that of a
Victorian gentleman with waistcoat, fob watch and tall collared white
shirt beneath a long black coat. In fact he bore more than a slight
resemblance to an undertaker. His face however was dominated by a
generously sized moustache and bushy eyebrows, both grey and both
immaculately kept even in the zero gravity of the warship.
The
Englishman had been one of humanity's first extraterrestrial
representatives with a solid fifty years of experience in the
diplomatic corps and a natural affinity for the fine art of
negotiating. He had served as Earth's first true ambassador to
Centauri Prime where his curious sense of dress had actually gone
down very well and allowed him to fit in among visitors to the Royal
Court. It was even stated that the new Emperor had shared a few jokes
with him before Grenvilles time as Ambassador ended.
Under
President Hauser's administration he had been appointed as
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, a post with great status and plenty of
responsibility designed to set up human embassies on alien worlds and
look after the various alien delegations on Earth, which were
currently few and far between.
He was a natural choice for this
sort of mission and his ability to speak flawless Centauri would give
him a common language with the Dilgar representative heading their
side of the talks. There were few who had the same level of
understanding into alien minds as Grenville and if the Dilgar were
trying something he'd be the first to know.
"I think
anything involving Dilgar is a bad idea." his companion answered in
a gentle accent originating from the American Midwest. "Gives me a
chill just thinking about it."
Earth liked to send it's
diplomats in pairs and tended to put people with different back
grounds together. The idea was that the two different negotiators
would stand a better chance of seeing any lies or evasion on the part
of their opposite numbers and therefore keep Earth safe. In this case
the President had hand picked one of the rising stars of the
Diplomatic corps, a balding short man called David Sheridan.
Sheridan
was a perfect diplomat because he was not what he first appeared,
that silent and calm exterior hid a quick mind that had surprised
many human and alien negotiators. The ineffectual and inoffensive
demeanor Sheridan projected was in many ways his true personality, a
gift from an idyllic child hood growing up amid the corn fields of
the great plains basking in long and glorious summers. It had done a
lot to shape his view of Earth and his desire to preserve it.
In
contrast to Grenville he wore warm and earthy colours, simple browns
and very dark reds styled into a plain and almost cheap looking suit,
all serving to project this carefully orchestrated image. While his
hair was fast vanishing he still had some red hued locks and kept
them neatly trimmed and tidy. For all the galaxy knew he could have
been a local Bank manager or store owner.
His record told the
truth of course, Sheridan had been a successful aide in negotiations
with the Centauri, Koulani and the African Block on Earth. More
recently he'd led diplomatic missions to keep the peace with the
mining guilds and Belt Alliance while also working with the Narn to
resolve a handful of border disputes, including the important Peace
Treaty with the Regime after initial violence after the First
Contact. He had aided Grenville there and made a good team, now they
were together again facing an even more dangerous opponent.
"The
question is, what do they want?" Grenville mused. "Nobody
negotiates for the benefit of others, just for their own interests.
How does this serve the Dilgar interests?"
"They want to keep
us out of their war." Sheridan answered. "Just like the Narn,
they must consider us a threat to their plans."
"Which means
they've studied us, assessed our military and available resources
and come to the conclusion that we can hurt them." Grenville
continued. "They know a good deal about us, I would wager they have
also studied our history and elements of our current culture,
probably language too so they may be able to understand us, though I
doubt they'll show it."
"You think they're here to study
us?" Sheridan asked.
"As one of their goals, yes." The
Ambassador nodded. "Though I also think they genuinely want this
treaty, they travelled a long way at great risk to attend this
meeting. If they just wanted to study us they'd send a small
expendable team in secret."
"Like the agent the EIA found in
Earth Dome."
"Exactly. Probably best not to mention that, I'm
sure our spooks have a plan to handle that internally."
Sheridan
nodded in agreement. Their directive from Earth was to attend this
negotiation and try to get a feel for what the Dilgar were really
like. So far humanity's only contact with the species had been
violent, on the one hand there was the Persephone, and on the
other the Dilgar Agent on Earth trying to steal highly classified
data. The Government had done a quick job covering that up, blaming
disaffected terrorists for the destruction and keeping the alien
connection secret.
Now there was a chance to meet a Dilgar and
talk with them, and as far as Sheridan was concerned you could learn
a lot more with some subtle questions than by any amount of
observation or research. He was going to be keeping a very close
watch on the expressions and body language of the Dilgar diplomats as
Grenville started asking difficult questions. First and foremost was
going to be the Persephone and the atrocities on
Tirrith.
With a slight shudder the Lexington dropped
out of the main jump gate and began the final stage of the
journey.
"All hands, maintain condition two alert." A strong
female voice ordered, that of the ships commander Vice Admiral
Thornhill. She had commanded the Cruiser Squadron that at one time
had included the Persephone and Sheridan could sense a
hardness in her tone. She was clearly no friend to the Dilgar.
"Prepare shuttle in Bay two for deployment, diplomatic team report
to Bay two at your convenience."
"That's our ride."
Sheridan began unbuckling himself from the seat he had been in for
most of the trip, unlike most of his family he hated Space tracel.
Grenville on the other hand wasn't quite ready to go yet. He moved
to a communication panel and activated it.
"Admiral, this is
Ambassador Grenville."
After a few seconds there came a
response. "Mr Ambassador, is there a problem?"
"No Admiral,
I was hoping you could show us the feed from the visual sensors. I'd
quite like to see the Dilgar ships as we approach."
"As you
wish." Thornhill replied, and a few moments later the large screen
in their lounge blinked to life.
"Why do you need to see their
ships?" Sheridan wondered. "We saw them in the intelligence
briefing."
"Just curiousity." Grenville shrugged. "And
perhaps to put me in the right frame of mind, these are a militant
people, aggressive but subtle. We're going to have to tread
carefully with these people. Let's hope they've sent a Moron to
negotiate with us."
The Eridani outpost was in two parts, on
the surface was a fairly small and largely unimportant scientific
research facility doing climate experiments and in orbit was the more
impressive trading post and military garrison. It was a standard
Orion class station with a habitation ring spinning steadily
around the central zero gravity core and docking bay. It was well
armed with guns and missile batteries and a healthy sensor suite, not
to mention thicker armour than most battleships. It grew steadily
larger as the cruiser approached, a flight of Tiger class Starfuries
escorting them in. Not, Sheridan noted, the latest Nova class
Furies.
Earth was playing a careful game with the Dilgar making
sure to hide evidence of it's true strength. The model Starfuries
were by all accounts startlingly good fighters and a major ace in the
hole the Alliance could count on, right along side the similarly
named Dreadnoughts. Earth Force knew the Dilgar would be using this
as a grand opportunity to gather hard sensor data on Human military
units and their capabilities, as well as numbers and formations so
Admiral Hamato who commanded this sector was doing his best to keep
the potential enemy guessing.
But at the same time Hamato was
aware of the potential danger this represented Not only did the
military desire to hide it's technology but they also didn't want
to show exactly how many ships they had, deciding to send just
Admiral Thornhill to meet the Dilgar fleet. In addition to the base
Hamato had deployed just five cruisers to hold station and face the
Dilgar fleet of thirty, and even considering the strength of the base
it would be a short fight if hostilities erupted. There were
precautions of course, the sector Admiral had deployed two full
Divisions in hyperspace riding close to the system beacon ready to
enter at the first sign of trouble, Twenty Dreadnoughts lead by the
Hannibal, his personal flagship with a full escort wing of
about fifty smaller ships.
It was a gamble, but hopefully the base
would hold long enough for the fleet to jump in to the rescue.
Carefully the Lexington moved into position and came
to a relative stop on the nearside of the station, with the Dilgar
fleet arrayed on the far side. Using the Lexington was also
part of Admiral Hamato's ploy, she had previously rescued the
survivors of the Persephone incident and was already known to
the Dilgar. By sending just heavy cruisers he was again denying the
Dilgar an opportunity to investigate any of the unfamiliar Earth
Force warships.
Moments later the shuttle departed from its bay
just forward of the Lexington's lower conning tower and made
it's journey to the main docking bay at Eridani Station, a squadron
of fighters escorting it under the guns of the base and task force.
The Dilgar however made no move and simply waited until the shuttle
was cleared through the dock before beginning their own
preparations.
With simple efficiency the Earth shuttle was locked
away and the bay prepared to receive the Dilgar delegation, Grenville
and Sheridan making their way out to the gravity positive sections of
the station.
"Gentlemen." They were met in customs by an
officer in full dress uniform. "My name is Commander Drezler,
welcome to Eridani sector."
"Thank you Commander." Grenville
answered. "Is the room set up as I asked?"
"Yes sir, shall
we inform the Dilgar we are ready to begin?"
"Please do."
The Ambassador nodded.
"Is the escort ready?" Sheridan then
joined in. "You found the unit I asked for?"
"We did sir."
The Commander flickered a smile. "Maybe the Dilgar will remember
them?"
"Make sure the cameras catch their faces as they
arrive." Sheridan nodded. "I want to see if there is a reaction,
give us a little insight into their character."
"Also your
experts are waiting, two EIA agents from Earth."
"Field
agents?" Sheridan wondered.
"No sir, technical." Drezler
answered. "Agents Clark and O'Leary, they're young but supposed
to be the foremost experts on the Dilgar. They even speak enough of
the language between them to translate."
"Negotiations will be
in Centauri." Grenville said. "But keep them listening in on the
security monitors, if they say anything to each other they can
hopefully catch it."
"Understood sir."
"Well then."
Grenville rubbed his hands together and grinned at Sheridan. "Let's
see what we are up against. Clear them to land Commander and we'll
start this little game."
Krish Star
system
Dilgar occupied.
Jors did not take his eyes off the
proximity sensors for the twelve full minutes it took for the pair of
Thorun Dartfighters to leisurely cruise in and out of sensor range.
Beside him the rest of the Space Race crew remained equally
tense and motionless as if by not moving in their chairs they could
avoid drawing the attention of the military craft passing by on
standard patrol. At one point they had come close enough to see out
of the forward bridge windows, green trident shaped predators weaving
in and out of the massive flocks of harmless freighters now trapped
in this conquered system.
"I think they're leaving." Toby
whispered completely unnecessarily.
"Wait until we're sure."
Paul Calendar stated. "Give it another few minutes after they make
it out of range."
The two fighters left the small computer
generated circle that represented their predicted sensor range and
put the Race back in the dark as far as the Dilgar were
concerned. Paul however was not about to take any chances and he
waited until the fighters were another five minutes away before
giving the go ahead for the ship to continue its monitoring
operation.
"Estimate an hour and a half until they head back
into this sector." Jenny reported from her station to the right of
the small bridge. "Until then we should be free and clear."
"I've
heard that before." Jors muttered as he finally brought his
attention back to the flight controls. The system had been on cold
standby while the Dilgar were conducting their patrol to avoid
drawing attention, and now very carefully he brought the reactor up
to optimal power.
"Put us back on course, slow and steady."
Paul ordered. "Loop around the planet, get some readings and
rendezvous with the Delphi on the far side of the fifth
planet. Nice easy job."
"As long as we don't get caught."
Toby commented. "Then it's going to just get ugly."
"Nothing
new for us." Paul answered. "Jors, lets get this done."
The
Space Race had arrived a few hours earlier through a jump
point opened behind a particularly large asteroid which would
hopefully mask their arrival from Dilgar sensors. There had been no
increase in communication among the Dilgar ships and no fighter units
vectored in to check out the area so Paul had made the decision to
proceed, the EIA cruiser Delphi returned to hyperspace and
made the quick journey out to the rendezvous point further out in the
Krish home system, there it would wait until the Race arrived
and open a fresh jump point through which both ships would retreat
and take home a bundle of vital intelligence. At least in theory.
The
key to the mission was using the Space Race to get close
enough to Krish for it's newly fitted sensor pods to get some solid
readings from the surface and if possible from the naval forces
holding station between the world and the local jump gate. Krish
space was literally packed with cargo ships, liners and freighters of
every description from all across the League, ships that had been
chartered to evacuate refugees from this planet but had not made it
to the gate in time. Only a fraction of the refugee fleet had
escaped, a few thousand people at most before the Dilgar invaded
ahead of schedule and nailed the doorway shut.
The Race
would mingle with these trapped freighters and pretend to be one of
them, it's external appearance was battered enough to make it look
like it'd been plying the routes for years and was a harmless tramp
ship, which a few months ago would have been quite true, however that
camouflage now concealed a potent little package of anti fighter and
even a few anti ship weapons. It's four cargo pods had been
replaced by two advanced sensor pods on loan from the EIA and a
couple of Earth Force Q-Ship weapons pods packed with a nasty plasma
cannon and a dozen missiles each. The pods looked like regular cargo
containers and a casual scan would show them as simply empty space,
but even so Paul wanted to make very sure he didn't cross paths
with a Dilgar patrol. Not with their luck.
"Course set."
Jors announced. "Here we go."
He gave the ship a brief nudge
form the engines and then let inertia do the rest. Running the
engines constantly would probably draw some attention which was the
last thing they wanted so they would simply coast and use Krish's
gravity to curl them around the planet and put them on course for the
rendezvous. With so many ships in the area Paul was hoping they would
go completely unnoticed and not get shot to pieces.
"No
activity." Toby checked the ship's standard sensors, now upgraded
to military grade. "I don't think the Dilgar spotted us. Or they
don't care."
"Most of the freighters are trying to get away
from the planet." Jenny said. "Slipping past the Dilgar patrols
and heading for the outer edges of the system to hide. If I was a
Dilgar officer and I saw a ship heading the other way I'd be pretty
suspicious."
"How long until we reach the planet?"
"About
an hour." Jors said. "We'll pick up some speed with a little
gravity slingshot as we flyby, then make it out of Dilgar sensor
range less than half an hour later. We should be out of here in just
under three hours if we play it right."
"And just under three
hundred pieces if we don't." Toby reminded them.
"Well you
never know." Paul smiled. "Maybe the Dilgar will welcome us back
as old friends."
"Yeah, with open gun ports." Jenny
chuckled.
"Just keep us nice and steady." Paul told Jors. "No
sudden movements, just fly casual."
"Fly casual." Jors
scoffed. "Where have I heard that before?"
Slowly and silently
the Space Race slipped through the Dilgar lines and travelled
closer and closer to the planet itself.
Eridani Station
Sha'dur was isolated enough inside the cocoon of the
diplomatic shuttle but he still had an uneasy feeling like he was
being watched. In fact he supposed he was, with the eyes of the
Dilgar senior leadership firmly focused on the success of this
mission, and in all likelihood the equivalent members of the Earth
Alliance doing the same.
He knew his sister would have killed to
be here face to face with members of the human leadership, and in all
likelihood would one day kill Len'char for taking her place here,
but the Supreme Warmaster had been adamant Jha'dur was needed
elsewhere and was currently moving to the Cascan border. She had
gathered her fleet once more, resupplied, and was now just a couple
of days away from all out war again, one more front to fight on, one
more empire to break, one more step on the path to salvation.
As
soon as she established a foot hold and began to engage the main
Cascor fleets Sha'dur and his fleet would move to engage the Ipsha,
a reasonably advanced race just beyond Cascor space at the limits of
the League worlds. If all went as scheduled this conference would end
quickly and allow him to lead the flee tin person rather than
commanding from afar, though he did trust his aide War Captain Evenil
to fight skilfully in his place.
He had come a long way in a short
time, from a rash officer to a genuinely skilled Warmaster who was
fast earning respect within the Imperium. He had received invaluable
instruction from jha'dur on how to fight, and from Gar'shan on
why to fight which was if anything more important to him than plain
sills and tactics. He had driven the Brakiri to ruin but not wasted
his ships in trying to secure a phyrric victory, he had learned to
control his emotions and fight coldly, and it had put him at about
the rank of third most effective soldier in the entire Imperium,
behind Dar'sen on the Drazi front and of course at the top Jha'dur
herself.
Now he was being trusted with a place on this diplomatic
mission, something he had no true experience in. Len'char was
leading the delegation and while Sha'dur was technically there to
assist him in reality Sha'dur was there to watch Len'char and
report directly to the Supreme Warmaster. It was no secret the two
leaders were opposed to each other and it had divided the government,
a potential dangerous situation in wartime. No rift had yet opened,
and by keeping a close watch on Len'char hopefully those loyal to
Gar'shan could prevent a disaster before it happened.
The
shuttle docked carefully in the stations central bay before following
a series of lifts and conveyors out of the zero gravity area and into
a positive gravity private docking bay in the stations ring. The ship
rumbled to a stop and the bay sealed and pressurized around
them.
"You have your papers Warmaster Sha'dur?" Len'char
asked with a hint of disdain. There was no doubt the intelligence
head was also fully aware as to why he had been assigned a second on
this mission.
"Ready when you are Warmaster."
Len'char
was the senior officer of the two having held the rank longer, indeed
he was senior to Jha'dur too but wisely had never tried to order
her to do something on his authority alone. Sha'dur had to suppress
a smile when he imagined his sisters likely reaction to such an
event.
"I shall negotiate." Len'char continued. "You will
provide facts and data when asked by me, otherwise you will remain
silent."
"As you wish." Sha'dur had no intention of
playing lackey to Len'char, especially as his sister had made sure
Sha'dur spoke passable English. One more reason to come along, but
no need to tell Len'char all the details.
"These humans are a
new race, newer even than us, I don't expect any problems but even
so do not give anything away." The lecture continued. "Our orders
are to produce a non aggression treaty, even if these humans are no
threat our great leader has spoken, so we obey or are
executed."
"Indeed we do." Sha'dur smiled thinly. "A sad
end to your career Warmaster."
Len'char shot him a glance, but
did not press that point. "Gar'shan has executed a great many
people. He is not the hero you believe. He is as power hungry as any
of us."
"Perhaps." Sha'dur replied. "But he has the
wisdom to use what he has gained wisely, his Grand Strategy in this
war is flawless."
"It is reckless, we are spread too
thin."
"We have the initiative, and offense is the best
defence."
"Now that is Jha'dur talking." Len'char
scoffed. "Always ready to attack somebody new."
"No."
Sha'dur said calmly. "She fights when she knows she can win,
which is why she supports our treaties with the Narn and now Earth.
She knows we cannot fight larger powers and the League, she knows
there is a time to fight and a time to prepare."
"We will see
what she knows." Len'char answered darkly. "But for now we have
our duty, prepare to leave."
The shuttle was officially
carrying four passengers, consisting of pilot, copilot and the two
Warmasters. In truth it was carrying five, unknown to everyone except
Sha'dur the shuttle had an extra guest, one of Jha'dur's
Spectres. His job was to act as insurance, partly in case the humans
tried anything, which Jha'dur doubted, but mostly to protect
against an act of treachery from Len'char or one of his
cronies.
The Spectre was called Arn'dal and was rated second
only to Dar'ro in Jha'dur's estimation. With Dar'ro on long
term assignment to Earth Arn'dal had become her personal bodyguard
and most trusted enforcer, the only one she could trust to ensure her
brothers safety. Arn'dal was larger than Dar'ro had been and did
not suffer from baldness like his colleague, if anything he was the
perfect specimen of Dilgar adulthood, tall, broad and strong with an
unusually quick wit. While Dar'ro was faster and more determined
Arn'dal had a far more interesting record, and a kill list
unmatched by anyone without resorting to aerial bombardment. He had a
tendancy to create a lot of collateral damage during missions which
had kept him from Earth but made him the ideal bodyguard. Nothing
ever got past him.
They left the pilots in the ship and headed to
the doorway leading to the habitable sections, behind them Arn'dal
quietly followed undetectable under the shroud of his stealth suit.
So far there had been no system that could break through the
capabilities of these suits, and while this was a standard model
which could only be truly effective when simulating invisibility,
it's workings remained an extraordinary secret guarded by Jha'dur's
inner circle at Research and Development command.
The airlock door
whined and opened revealing a line of soldiers standing flush to the
wall beyond and a tall and powerful looking officer a few yards ahead
waiting to greet them.
Each of the soldiers was wearing dress
uniform, a grey long cut uniform jacket with black trim and some gold
braid, clearly the humans shared the Dilgar appreciation for finery.
The officer had dark skin and a bald head, Sha'dur noted a few
different skin colours among the soldiers but noted no particular
pattern regarding their ranks, judging that human soldiers were not
segregated by class or caste. That had to mean they were given rank
based on merit, the pattern was too random to suggest family or
national prejudices.
He followed Len'char through the
doorway, noting that the soldiers forming the honour guard were well
armed with energy rifles and combat knives at their belts, perhaps a
sign that human soldiers had no concerns about engaging in face to
face combat? Sha'dur could certainly respect that, and he noticed
not one of the men or women even flicked an eye his direction. They
remained utterly under control waiting for their officer to speak.
It
was then Sha'dur was taken completely by surprise by a deep throaty
growl, something he totally did not expect from humans. Narns yes,
but not humans. It took several seconds for him to see it wasn't a
human but some four legged furry creature which looked deceptively
powerful despite its lack of height. It also had plenty of teeth and
was straining against a lead held by another black skinned
soldier.
Sha'dur grabbed the word 'Dog' from somewhere in
his memory and gave it some distance. But the animal was not snarling
at him, it was snarling at something behind him, and there was only
one possible explanation. It knew Arn'dal was there. Sha'dur
didn't have time to figure out how it knew, but clearly it did and
Arn'dal's discovery would not only jeopardise the mission but
would compromise his own security in case Len'char did have designs
on his life.
With a subtle hand gesture he motioned for Arn'dal
to fall back and return to the shuttle. No doubt the Spectre was not
happy about it but he obeyed instantly, and the Dog beside him fell
silent.
If the dark human officer knew what had happened he did
not display it.
"Welcome to Eridani, My Name is Captain Richard
Franklin, Earth Force." He announced in Centauri.
"We thank
you for receiving us. I am Warmaster Len'char, this is Warmaster
Sha'dur."
"If you would care to follow me I'll escort you
to the meeting room." He turned to a man beside him. "Sergeant
Garibaldi?"
"Sir." The man answered.
"See that Delilah
gets a steak."
"Yes sir." He said, quickly hiding a grin.
Sha'dur did not know what that meant, but he did now these humans
had something to be pleased about, and while he couldn't prove it
he knew it had to do with Arn'dal's discovery by that beast.
They
were led further through the station, and Sha'dur resolved himself
to learn all he could. These humans were going to be trouble.
Krish.
"Uh
oh." Toby said ominously.
"Don't do that!" Paul snapped.
"Never, ever, ever say that on this ship because you just know what
happens next!"
"Fire, explosions, us running for our lives."
Jors elaborated. "Never good."
"Sorry." Toby said
absently. "I just meant, well, Uh oh, we got problems."
"He's
right." Jenny confirmed reading the data from the far better sensor
pods currently fitted to the Space Race. "We just had some
major hyperspace activity."
"How major?" Paul asked.
"About
the entire Dilgar navy." Toby groaned.
"Make that a thousand
ships." Jenny said more precisely. "At least a third of those are
heavy warships of cruiser size or above, based on markings I'd say
it was First Strike Fleet."
Paul grew a little sick at the
report. "Warmaster Jha'dur."
"Same ships from Abbai space
and Tirrith." Jors said with palpable bitterness. "About as mean
as they come."
"Think they remember us?" Toby
wondered.
"From what I've read on Jha'dur, oh yeah." Jenny
confirmed. "She's the sort who holds grudges."
"I hate
Dilgar." All three male crewmembers said in perfect unison.
"I
recommend we stay on course." Jenny said calmly. "If we start
firing engines it's going to get us noticed. The fleet is holding
station near the gate, we won't be travelling anywhere near
it."
"So we just float past them and hope they don't spot
us?" Toby grunted. "Why don't we call the Delphi? Get us
out of here quick."
"Because it'll have to get here through
hyperspace first." Paul answered. "And it's at least five
minutes to recharge the jump engines, and It won't take the Dilgar
five minutes to see it, shoot it, and then shoot us too." He shook
his head. "We hold course, finish the mission."
"You really
want that money?" Jenny half joked.
But did not laugh back. "We
took a job, and we owe it to our employers to get it done. We owe a
lot of people to get this done."
Paul didn't say any more, but
it was quite obvious what he meant. The Dilgar had done a lot of
damage, to the ship, to the crew, to the universe at large. Paul
wanted to do something about that, it wasn't about the money
anymore, it was something else. Paul would say justice, which would
be a first for him, but Jenny was minded to call it something
darker.
"Toby, watch the Dilgar." He ordered. "Jenny, get
ready to scan the planet, we're coming up in a few
minutes."
"Angels and Ministers of Grace defend us." Jors
muttered, then put his hand on the emergency engine start and did not
move it away again, just in case.
Dreadnought Deathwalker
It was with satisfaction Jha'dur surveyed the
system, her brother had taken it quickly and cleanly with no losses
to his fleet and no damage to the planet. At least not at first. He
had let his ships work out some aggression on the vast numbers of
freighters clogging the system and there was a lot of debris near the
gate where some vessels had tried a breakout. She had plenty of new
ships in her fleet to replace war losses that had yet to see combat,
a little live fire practice would probably come in useful.
Krish
had been a prospective home for the Dilgar species, but ultimately
they had chosen the world Jha'dur had taken, Mitoc. The Supreme
Warmaster and the council had confirmed it mere days ago and already
the first construction teams were there setting up an orbital defence
grid and the first houses for the engineers and workers from
Omelos.
The population had been left alone for now, but that was
going to change. Jha'dur had set up a system of work camps that
would soon be built to turn the native Mitoc into a huge source of
slave labour. Hopefully it ould speed up the process of altering
their infrastructure for Dilgar needs, and at the same time remove
most of the population as the died of overworking and
brutality.
Jha'dur had complemented herself on the elegance of
the plan.
It had meant that krish was now surplus to requirements.
While the idea of two habitable planets had suggested they could save
twice as many of Omelos' population Jha'dur had found it would
make no difference. They had enough ships to evacuate around two
billion billion people in the estimated three years until the star
exploded, and it was better to put them together on one world rather
than split them and thereby split the defences being planned for
them.
Krish was no threat, but nor was it a benefit. Sha'dur had
however found some use for it, the same use he had found for the
refugee freighters. Target practice. Once word came through Mitoc was
their new home there was no need to keep the world intact, so Sha'dur
had systematically destroyed every population centre in less than two
days, efficient even by Jha'dur's standards. She smiled a little
in approval.
But already the war had moved on, the Imperium
still needed to secure territory to safeguard it's new home and
make sure the League was in no condition to fight back once the war
ended. It wasn't about finding a home anymore, which meant the
Dilgar no longer had to restrain themselves when it came to planetary
assaults.
It amused Jha'dur slightly, with at least five billion
casualties in this war already it was hard to accept the Dilgar had
been pulling their punches, but her fleets had been very careful with
their weapons of mass destruction in the event they didn't find a
better world and had to evict an established League race like the
Abbai or Hyach, or even the Brakiri.
Now she could finally use her
weapons to their full potential, and she had been stockpiling an
assortment of biological agents for exactly this purpose. The League
thought they had seen the worst of the Dilgar, they hadn't seen
anything yet.
The Cascor would be the first, then the Ipsha a week
or so afterwards. Again the Dilgar would be advancing on two fronts
engaging two races at a time. It had worked against the Hyach and
Brakiri, the superpowers of the League, against the cascor and Ipsha
it was going to be far easier.
That did not mean it wouldn't
take some effort, but there was no doubt as to the outcome. The
Cascor were at least competent warriors and according to scout
reports they were fully mobilised and ready for war, unlike most
League races they knew the Dilgar were coming and had prepared a warm
reception.
Jha'dur valued the element of surprise and she deeply
enjoyed slaying her enemies while they fumbled around trying to react
to her tactics, but after the Hyach campaign she had found herself
missing something, some sense of fulfilment after the battle. It was
too easy, and while she knew no warior should ever complain of a
victory being easy she found that she was. Jha'dur sought a
challenge, an enemy who was ready to fight, and it looked like the
Cascor fit the bill.
She had formulated a plan to try and take the
greatest Cascor strength and turn it into their greatest weakness.
The fleet was gathered stronger than ever and the deadline was just
days away. She would be back at war, and she found herself looking
forward to it. She had never once felt fear in battle, just
confidence.
She admitted she had felt worry in battle before,
usually involving someone she cared about taking a risk or doing
something stupid, but she had never feared for herself or considered
death. If it came, it came and she wouldn't hide from it, but she
firmly believed there wasn't a ship or Captain in the League
skilled enough to destroy her flagship. She didn't consider it
arrogance, just a sure and certain fact.
"System report
Captain." She asked quietly. "Anything of interest?"
"No
Warmaster." An'jash ran through the sensor readings. "No
military presence, just freighters and liners. Scans show multiple
life signs."
Jha'dur looked at the tactical screen, it showed
the freighters were mainly grouped together and tended to be moving
away from the Dilgar at a painfully slow rate. Without jump engines
and with the gate under guard they were trapped, she guessed no more
than a month before the passengers starved to death. Longer if they
resorted to cannibalism. She felt a smile twitching at her lips, that
would actually make an extremely fascinating experiment, a test of
the instinct to survive in this race.
"Order the ninth and tenth
battlegroups to engage the nearest cluster of freighters, they need
some gunnery practice."
"Yes Warmaster."
"Leave the
other freighters intact, and I want them monitored by the guard
ships. I'll provide more instruction for them in this matter before
we leave."
"It will be done Warmaster."
She prepared to
leave the bridge and oversee the final replacements to bring her
force to full strength when she spotted something on the sensors, a
tiny, lone reading near the planet. It hadn't raised any suspicious
with the crew or the sensor officers, but it bothered her. She
watched it for a while as it moved closer to the planet.
"Captain,
what ship is that, there?"
An'jash brought up the data. "Light
Freighter, generic design."
Jha'dur looked at the information
carefully, the mass and dimension data seemed basic enough, but the
hull material wasn't any League produced alloy. "Can you get a
visual from a nearer ship?"
Her suspicion had been raised by the
ship heading toward the planet, not away like all the rest, and when
they finally picked up a visual feed from a nearby frigate she
instantly recognized the design. So did An'jash.
"The Tirrith
freighter!" she gasped. "Humans!"
"Correct." Jha'dur
confirmed calmly. "Launch a fighter squadron to disable it."
"At
once Warmaster."
"Then find Squadron Leader Ari'shan, I have
a job for him."
Eridani Station.
"Gentlemen, I
am Secretary of Foreign Affairs Sir Richard Grenville, this is my
Second Mr David Sheridan."
"I am Warmaster Len'schar of the
Dilgar Imperium, and this is Warmaster Sha'dur, my second."
The
bowed slightly to one another before Grenville gestured at the seats
around the table. "Shall we sit down gentlemen?"
"Thankyou
Ambassador." Len'char nodded. "I do look forward to beginning
these talks."
"As do we all Warmaster." Grenville answered
carefully. "Can I offer you any food or drink?"
"That is not
necessary, thank you." Len'char took his seat, Sha'dur quietly
following suit.
The conference chamber was rather Spartan in
nature as befitted such an out of the way outpost with plain metal
walls with very little decoration, just one picture of a city skyline
taken on either Earth itself or one of the more developed human
colonies. Sha'dur paid it a good deal of attention as Len'char
fiddled with his notes, appreciating the simple linear designs of the
city and the ordered arrangement of the buildings. He could also
appreciate a little of the artistry in the way the image itself had
been captured in the last light of the sun.
"I'd like to
start," Len'char spoke in accented Centauri but clear enough for
the room to understand. "By bringing greetings from the Emperor and
government. We humbly thank your people for this audience."
"Thank
you Warmaster." Grenville answered politely. "I'm sure these
talks will be very enlightening for all concerned."
Grenville
had learned his language skills from the Centauri themselves and
spoke with a cut and flawless accent perfected in and around the
Royal court where slang words were frowned upon. The formal and rigid
way he spoke matched the way he dressed which Sheridan could
appreciate. Grenville wasn't typical of all humanity, nobody was,
but he did project a very carefully cultivated image of himself to
keep the alien races guessing about how representative he was of the
species.
"I am a man who likes to get things done quickly and
plainly." Len'char began, and Sha'dur had to exert a good deal
of will not to scoff at the idea. "So I will say this simply. The
Dilgar Imperium wishes to sign a non aggression treaty with the Earth
Alliance."
Grenville nodded. "So if I may be equally blunt,
why?"
"Because we do not want a war with your people, my
government believes you are a strong and honourable race and we
should co-exist as friends, perhaps one day allies."
Len'char
did not believe the Dilgar needed friends or allies, just slaves and
dead enemies. However even he had to admit that Gar'shan's wisdom
in dealing with larger alien races one at a time was better than just
attacking with no assurances.
"Our people are very widely
separated." Grenville said. "Until recently we had very no
dealings with each other."
"Correct, but as we conduct
peacekeeping operations we find we are growing closer and closer to
your borders."
"Peacekeeping?" Grenville said. "Do you
mean your invasion of sovereign worlds?"
"Worlds that have
sponsored piracy against the Imperium for many years, and who were
threatening to invade us."
"They kept that plan quiet."
Grenville said, feigning surprise. "We have extensive trade
relations with the Brakiri, can't say we ever noticed anything.
Well, had trade relations, now we can't seem to get close."
"The
blockade is for everyones safety." Len'char said calmly. "To
keep the terrorist Brakiri imprisoned until we can arrest them. When
it is done the world will be freed under a legal government."
"A
Dilgar government?"
"A legal government." Len'char
repeated.
"Like the other worlds you have
taken?"
"Exactly."
Grenville nodded over to Sheridan
and the balding man produced some documents and laid them on the
table.
"These are reports we intercepted from across the
League." Sheridan stated. "They contain some vivid reports of war
crimes and atrocities committed by your people. The scale is simply
shocking."
"Propaganda." Len'char dismissed. "The Dilgar
military is a professional force, not a gang of thugs."
"You
deny these events took place?"
"Completely."
Sha'dur
kept a straight face, Len'char was being led into a trap, but for
some very obvious reasons he didn't really care. He was just sad
Jha'dur was going to miss it.
"We'll come back to that
later." Sheridan said patiently. "But why don't we discuss a
little about the last time our people met."
He dropped a picture
in front of Len.char. Sha'dur leaned over a little and recognized
the design as a human war cruiser. No doubt the ship his sister at
destroyed nearly half a year earlier.
"The Persephone."
Sheridan clarified. "Lost on patrol at Tirrith in December last
year."
"A regrettable accident." Len'char sighed. "One
for which we have apologised and offered reparations for."
"Money
does not make up for the deaths of a crew without provocation."
Sheridan said flatly. "We recovered the data recorder from the
Persephone and know exactly what happened. Your ships fired
first."
"We believed your cruiser was an enemy vessel."
Len'char replied.
"She was broadcasting her neutrality on all
frequencies."
"In a language we did not understand."
"In
interlac Mr Warmaster." Sheridan stated curtly. "She was
attempting to prevent the destruction of thousands of refugees."
"The
enemy fleet contained numerous terrorists, criminals and pirates who
had commited crimes against the Dilgar." Len'char said firmly.
"We were conducting war time operations."
"Criminals?"
Sheridan shook his head. "Women and Children who's only mistake
was trying to get out from under the guns of your fleet."
"We
were fighting a war, and your ship got in the way!"
"It
shouldn't have had to, no civilized fleet fires on refugees."
"If
your Captain wasn't skilled enough to…."
"The incident,"
Sha'dur cut in, interrupting Len'char before he said something
really stupid. "Was regrettable, and we Dilgar take full
responsibility. The officer commanding the vanguard forces was
overzealous and not representative of the Dilgar fleet. If he had
survived the battle he would have been court martialled."
Len'char
shot him a look that would melt steel, but remained silent.
"And
what about afterwards, the Persephone survived those first
ships."Sheridan stated
"When the main force arrived they saw
the Vanguard destroyed and your ship in their midst, they reacted as
any military leader would." Sha'dur sighed. "With more
information I am sure the fleet commander would have acted
differently."
"The fleet commander." Grenville mused. "A
Warmaster Jha'dur, correct?"
"Correct." Sh'dur answered.
"May I ask how you know?"
"Your own news service."
Grenville told the half truth. "She seems to be quiet popular, any
relation?"
"My sister." Sha'dur confirmed. "Twin in
fact, about thirty seconds older."
Len'char made a disgruntled
noise which was pointedly ignored.
"There is still the point
that the Persephone was lost in an unprovoked incident."
Sheridan continued.
"All I can say is that we regret it."
Sha'dur said contritely. "And we hope that nothing like that
happens again, this treaty will ensure that."
In truth the
Persephone was no accident, while her actual destruction
hadn't been planned the events around it had been part of Dilgar
foreign policy. A few years earlier when the Dilgar had been planning
this war they had performed a similar ploy on the Narns, destroying
one of their cruisers in a confused battle with Raiders involving
ships from four separate groups. Newly appointed Supreme Warmaster
Gar'shan had apologised profusely, offered the Narn a hefty
compensation package and then a treaty to ensure it never happened
again.
That treaty had ensured the Narn would stay neutral in
this war, and doomed the League to their fiery death. There were
standing orders to do the same to any Centauri ship that stumbled
into the battle field so a similar ploy could be enacted, and they
even had orders to shoot any of the fabled Minbari ships they came
across. Though Jha'dur was arguing vehemently that while Narn and
Centauri reactions were predictable not enough was known about the
Minbari to risk such a thing.
"How is your sister?" Grenville
suddenly asked.
"Ambassador?"
"Your sister, she is
well?"
"Yes." He said, a little mystified. "She is well,
thank you."
"But she didn't want to attend this meeting and
talk about the Persephone?"
"I'm afraid she has other
duties." Sha'dur replied. "But I do know she regrets the loss
of the ship and considers its crew among the finest crews she has yet
seen."
Ironically he was telling the truth, Jha'dur had found
respect for that crew and it had set a seed of doubt in her mind when
it came to humanity. If all humans fought that well she was in no
mood to antagonise them. Gar'shan had agreed and pushed for this
treaty ahead of schedule.
"My government is considering whether
or not to indict her on criminal charges for the incident."
Sheridan noted gravely.
"As I mentioned, the responsibility
rested with the leader of the Vanguard fleet, he was not under orders
from above." Sha'dur was lying of course, the squadron commander
had been told to destroy everything in the system regardless of its
origin.
"Our compensation offer was most generous, and it still
stands." Len'char added, now calmed down. "We do regret this
incident occurred, and wish to avoid a repeat in the
future."
Grenville nodded slowly. "Well then, I think we
have something in common. I suggest a short break, then we can begin
discussing this in greater detail."
"As you wish Ambassador."
Len'char said, trying not to look at his second, who just found it
amusing.
"You have quarters set up immediately adjacent, we will
meet again in fifteen minutes." Grenville stood. "After you,
gentlemen."
The group went it's separate ways, with the Dilgar
in one room and the two humans in another, waiting for them inside
were the base commander and the two EIA agents dispatched to help the
negotiators.
"Anything to report gentlemen?" Grenville asked
the two young men.
"Not a whole lot sir." Agent Clark replied.
Although he wasn't in favour with EIA Director Durban after
metaphorically nailing his colours to Secretary Brogan's mast who
was a political rival to Durban and many others, Clark still
possessed a good deal of knowledge regarding the Dilgar and was still
an important part of the EIA.
However as more and more was learned
and a greater priority was placed on this alien race his unique
position was shifting and the EIA was creating more Dilgar experts,
foremost among them was Francis O'Leary, Durban's little protégé.
Clark was feeling somewhat resentful towards the young man, he knew a
replacement when he saw one, but Clark knew his future lay with
Brogan and the government he was going to create during the next
term, and Clark appreciated the long term rewards due to come his
way. This negotiation was of interest to the President and Director
Durban, but through Clark it would also come to Brogan, just like the
fate of the Spectre on Earth had.
"We've identified Sha'dur
as one of the progressives, a small group in the Dilgar who favour a
more direct way of governing and warfare. Most consider them radicals
but they have a lot of influence at the top." The second man
reported. Francis was still extremely shaken from his recent
experience but Durban believed the best way to handle the emotions
was to keep busy and then relax when he had some perspective. "From
what we can glean from Dilgar information broadcasts and
communication intercepts the leader, Len'char, is a conservative
and opposed to the new ideas. These two don't get on, and if you
examine their facial expressions you can see Sha'dur enjoying his
comrades discomfort."
"Great bunch." Grenville huffed. "Even
at war they don't get on with each other."
"We should try
and exploit this," Mused Sheridan. "Raise point's they'll
disagree on. If we get them mad with each other something useful
might slip through."
"Give them ten minutes." Grenville
said. "Let them go over their performance and get even more bitter
about it, then we'll continue. We want them divided when we drop
the big questions."
"Which questions?" Clark asked.
"Their
future intentions for this part of space and the Earth Alliance."
Sheridan asked. "Hopefully by the time we ask they'll be too
divided to lie convincingly."
"Also my superiors should have
evidence of Dilgar atrocities by then." Francis added. "Something
else to trip them up on."
"Good." Grenville rubbed his hands
together with a grin. "Anyone for tea?"
Krish System
Paul's eyes were locked firmly on the digital clock
counting down the seconds until they were in position, the red bars
flashing and twisting around their linear shapes as the forward
windows filled with the still breathtaking blue and white
world.
"What do we know about the Krish?" Toby asked. "I
mean are they good guys?"
"I don't know." Jors shrugged.
"Never really met one. Guess I never will now."
"You still
might." Jenny said in correction.
"No we won't." Paul
said flatly. "The Dilgar own this place, it's a death
sentence."
"These people were part of the League." Observed
Toby. "By now the League should be reacting, preparing to counter
attack and liberate these places?"
"They can't even save
themselves, they don't stand a chance actually counter attacking
the Dilgar." Paul shook his head. "The League had turned into a
joke, the Dilgar were the punch line."
Jenny had never seen Paul
like this, his every word and move done with such bitterness. He was
blaming the League for it's failure to stand up to the Dilgar, as
if he thought a united group would have made a difference. She
considered that it might have done, but given the effectiveness of
Dilgar warships and their radical new tactics it could have just
killed the League fleets that much faster.
"If the Cascor, Vree
and Markab united they could still win this." She stated.
"Especially if they co-ordinate with the Drazi."
"They were
always just supporters of the League in name." Paul dismissed.
"They never really took part. The only powers that truly believed
in a League or worlds are gone now, either dead or dying with a fleet
of Dilgar ships ready to deliver the killing stroke. This war was
lost before it started."
"They've been driven back before."
Jors pointed out. "The Dilgar can be beaten."
"They just
come back stronger and madder. You can't stop a fanatic, and the
Dilgar are all fanatics." Paul snorted. "Especially that one."
He gestured at the fleet on the sensor display.
"Jha'dur is no
fanatic." Jenny replied. "Fanatics are out of control, they just
do as they're told. That Warmaster is too smart to be out of
control. Ice cold."
"She's insane." Toby added.
"Not
by a long shot." Jenny disagreed. "That one knows exactly what
she's doing."
"Wiping out whole planets is not sane." Jors
sided with Toby. "How can it be?"
"It's war, total and
complete." Jenny explained. "To the Dilgar everyone is an enemy,
so they all die. Whole worlds, so they don't have to garrison them
and weaken their front lines."
"Genocide." Paul
said.
"Yeah." Jenny agreed. "But for the Dilgar it's a
necessity."
"It's never necessary." Jors said. "Not even
for them."
Before Jenny could continue the timer warned them
they were approaching their target. She had spent a lot of time
trying to think like a Dilgar to better predict their strategy and
plan for future covert operations, and it had not been pleasant. The
Dilgar conduct was logical in a cold and detached way, but when she
saw smuggled out footage of Dilgar soldiers revelling in slaughter
and enjoying the act of killing, it had shaken even her hardened
nerves.
"Stations." Paul ordered. "Jors, use thrusters to
make final course alterations."
The angular ship tilted in
space, small jets of white pushing it into position for a sling shot
around Krish itself. As they approached closer more and more of the
planets story unfolded. Pieces of wreckage bounced of the hull
clattering like rain on a tin roof growing more and more intense as
the Race drew in closer to the planet. The shattered remains
of a civilian spaceport still hung in orbit surrounded by twisted
shards and twisted remnants of freighters and shuttles that had
sought sanctuary there.
Below the planet was scarred with areas of
brown and grey, dust clouds visible even from this range marking out
where weapons of mass destruction had been used days earlier on major
population centres. From afar it was a beautiful world, but as they
examined it closer Krish was a graveyard.
"Beginning sensor
sweep." Jenny said in a subdued voice. The high powered devices
penetrated the dust clouds and surveyed the cities and land below,
sampling the air content and recording particulate matter high in the
planets atmosphere. It checked radiation levels, airborne virus'
and ambient temperature. All the clues needed to see what had
happened here, as if the pillars of smoke were not enough for
them.
"They used Mass Drivers." Paul said. "They had
to."
"Nothing else can do that to a planet." Jors agreed.
"It would have been quick."
"Doesn't make up for being
dead." The Captain grunted.
They watched in a trance as the ship
performed a fast orbit of the planet, trying to imagine what it was
like down there.
"I'm still seeing a lot of life signs."
Jenny reported. "But the Dilgar gave this place a real working
over. No sign of planetary defences, it was just target
practice."
"No warships, no weapons. This world was no threat
to the Dilgar." Paul remarked. "But they still attacked and
killed countless millions. Makes me sick."
"I've got
everything we need." Jenny reported. "We can go, it's proof of
Dilgar atrocities, solid undeniable proof."
"Jors, break
orbit." Paul said. "Slingshot us out to the Delphi."
The
thrusters fired again pushing the ship into place, so far they hadn't
needed the main engines and so apparently hadn't been noticed. They
had gathered a fair amount of speed by now and would be at the
rendezvous in less than an hour at the current speed. They crossed
the area of thickest debris and began coasting through the system
away from the Dilgar fleet and the chaos left behind them.
"You
know that is a lot of ships." Toby frowned. "Two full fleets you
say?"
"Two over strength strike fleets." Jenny confirmed.
"Probably a fifth to a quarter of the whole Dilgar Navy if the
intel was right. Major gathering."
"Someone's going to get
their butt's kicked." Jors stated. "That's an invasion fleet
if ever I saw one."
"Probably Cascor or Ipsha, those are the
closest powers to this system." Paul said absently. "More Lambs
to the slaughter."
Jenny took a moment longer to look over the
fleet listings. "The other fleet is run by Jha'dur's brother
you know. Twins."
"There are two of them?" Toby scoffed.
"Bet they were fun to teach in school."
"Dilgar news is
always talking about them, but most of it is propaganda." Jenny
shrugged "We're trying to find out her real story, but without a
source on Omelos it's a hard job."
"Guys." Jors
interrupted. "Better look at this."
"What is it?" Paul sat
up, senses going on alert.
"Dilgar fighter patrol." Toby
checked his sensor screen. "Full squadron, heading this way."
"Make
that two squadrons." Jenny added. "Starboard side low, Port side
high."
"There aren't supposed to be patrols in this
sector."
"No sir." Jenny agreed. "And it's too strong
for just a patrol force, somebody sent them specifically for
us."
"That's confirmed, they're on a direct intercept
course. We've got a minute." Toby warned.
"Our cover's
gone." Paul grunted. "Smart old witch found us out."
"How?"
Toby demanded. "We didn't do anything!"
"She must have
remembered us from Tirrith." Jenny guessed. "This ship is pretty
unique, she must have spotted us and sent these guys to bring us
in."
"They want us alive?" Jors asked with a hint of
trepidation.
"If they wanted us dead they'd have sent a
cruiser to use us for target practice." Paul replied. "No, it's
too late now. Bring engines online, full power. Standby on defence
grid, but don't activate weapons until they're right on top of
us. Lets keep our cards close for now."
With a low hum the Space
Race powered up and began to accelerate, instantly the Dilgar
fighters increased their own speed and closed in. They were still
moving away from the main fleet and towards the hidden Earth Force
ship, but they weren't going to make it remotely soon
enough.
"Enemy fighters in range." Toby reported. "They're
locking on."
"Jenny." Paul barked. "Let 'em have
it."
Ari'shan was glad to be back in a fighter, for a
brief time he had considered that those days were gone but Warmaster
Jha'dur had other ideas. He was now assigned to her fleet and was
in the process of transferring over his squadron when he had been
contacted by the Warmaster with this mission. As his squadron was
still in transit he had been given two fresh squadrons to command for
this particular operation and told to disable and detain a renegade
freighter crossing the system.
His wing mates were new, barely out
of the academy but displayed reasonable coordination and flying
ability, hopefully they were capable of handling one small
freighter.
"Very well Daggers two and three," he spoke on the
network. "Move in and engage, fire on the engines only. Everyone
else observe and prepare critique."
Two of the Thoruns broke
formation and swooped in while the remainder held their distance and
watched the angular freighter vainly trying to outrun the Dilgar
fighters. They lined up on the blocky engine structure and locked on
their weapons.
"Pay attention." Ari'shan continued his
lecture. "We know the ship is armed but Two and Three are failing
to take evasive action. Never fly straight and level in a battle for
more than three seconds."
In that moment every threat warning
system in his fighter lit up, driving away all thoughts of educating
these new pilots and replacing them with the need to get the hell out
of trouble.
"Break off!" he yelled, yanking his own controls
to spin away from the rapidly arming freighter. "Evasive action,
all craft break and run now!"
For all the bravado the Dilgar
News service broadcast the Dilgar were not stupid and recognized that
running away in order to preserve valuable assets was a vital piece
of military training. It was nice to believe the Dilgar would rather
die than give ground, bit it was no more than a myth to rouse the
public. Ari'shan's pilots reacted in an instant, scattering in
completely different directions and blossoming out in order to split
the expected defensive fire. They had no idea why the freighter
should suddenly be so well armed, but those mysteries could wait
until after they had finished trying to stay alive.
The small
particle cannons on the freighter registered a huge energy increase,
far more than was normal for such weapons as they rapidly tracked the
retreating Dilgar fighters. Ari'shan's warning signals coalesced
into one long tone as the enemy weapons reached their final charging
stage and began to fire.
The closest two fighters that had been
angling in on the engines vanished with the first two shot, both
rounds hitting perfectly right in the centre of the Thoruns tearing
them to pieces. The weapons were firing much faster and with much
greater accuracy than conventional low grade weapons, and an instant
later three more fighters that should have been safely out of
effective range were also transformed into super hot gas and
shards.
Ari'shan rolled hard to port, flipping the fighter on
every axis as four energy bolts raced for him. He saved his final
most violent piece of flying until the bolts were almost on him,
barely taking time to rejoice in the huge test this surprise was for
his skill as he gauged the distance to the projectiles by sight
alone. He redlined the retro thrusters and changed direction
completely, reversing his course and suffering massive G-forces in
the process that threatened his consciousness. The blue bolts grazed
past a few feet from his canopy, close enough to heat the outer hull
of the dart fighter before disappearing into the distance.
"Reform!"
he ordered, noticing six fighters were no longer on his sensor
readouts. "Assume attack Formation Eight."
"Sir," a voice
replied. "Sir, we don't know what that formation is."
He
paused. "What formations do you know?"
"None sir."
Ari'shan
shook his head, wondering exactly what the academy was teaching its
new pilots. "Alright, just follow me, and stay mobile." He said.
"Stick to me like glue."
"That's six." Toby
confirmed with a grin.
"Nice shooting Jen." Paul was also
smiling, glad to see the Dilgar taking a beating for a change.
"Not
so fast, we still have eighteen fighters out there." Jenny
cautioned. "They're coming back."
"Jors, hold course. Best
possible speed. Jenny, I'll leave it up to you haw to handle
them."
"Thanks." She muttered and aligned the range finders.
"Jors, can you be ready to bank to starboard and open up the lower
weapon arcs?"
"Ready." The Swedish pilot confirmed.
She
held her breath a few more seconds as the Thoruns raced in, keeping a
looser formation this time and performing evasive action. Fortunately
for her the tracking systems for the interceptors were designed to
correct their aim and predict any evasive action an enemy may attempt
and put a spread of rounds up to cover any possible path. The bolts
travelled so fast they usually took out the enemy before they could
pull a particularly tight evasive manoeuvre though there were always
exceptional pilots who somehow managed it.
"Now Jors! Hit
it!"
The pilot locked the controls hard to starboard throwing
the ship into a spin that pressed the crew flat into their chairs,
the restraints automatically tightening to keep them secure. The hull
bracings groaned and complained at the immense strain being put on
them, the stars spun in front of the window and a series of alarms
warned of excessive hull stress and thrusters overheating. The old
Space Race would have broken up under such a turn, but with
its rebuilt hull and military grade alloys the improved Race
was just about handling it, slewing right into place to oppose the
incoming squadrons.
The turn caught the Dilgar by surprise, they
had twice underestimated the freighter and were going to keep paying
for it. Jenny had a perfect shot as the Thoruns reacted too slowly
and only just began to break formation as the interceptors locked on.
She couldn't keep the faint predators smile from her lips as she
depressed the firing button and opened up with half a dozen turrets,
as much point defence fire as an average sized corvette, and watched
Dilgar fighters burn.
White and blue energy traced the dark in
short sharp bursts, the not so innocent looking freighter firing
again with enough weapons to gun down five squadrons, Ari'shan's
rookies didn't stand a chance. The first four died quick, the
particle bolts unerring in their precision striking dead centre on
the Thorun's hulls. Two of the fighters held their course and fired
upon the freighter, their cannons doing nothing but glancing off the
dirty grey armoured hull and attracting the ships attention and
allowing it to accrue two more Dilgar kills.
"Get out of here!
Full power!" he yelled to the squadron. "Just go!"
The
surviving Dart fighters put every ounce of power into their engines,
the ion thrusters blasting out blue and purple spikes of exhaust as
they lurched away in all directions to escape the rapid fire defence
grid. It didn't make much difference, the turrets twisted and
elevated with remarkable speed, keeping their muzzles on the fleeing
fighters and churning out round after round towards the Dilgar.
Fighter after fighter flashed briefly as it was hit, twisted wreckage
fluttering like falling blossom in a hurricane.
Finally they made
it out of range, a spluttering engine spinning past Ari'shan's
canopy as it expended the last of its fuel, the rest of the fighter
following behind in a cloud of pieces.
"Report status." He
ordered, trying to keep the pilots focused. "Check your displays,
how many of you can still fight?"
Beside himself three fighters
had made it to a safe distance, which meant the human freighter had
sent twenty pilots to their callings in the next world. It had
deceived him, it had hurt his squadron and it was still getting away
without a scratch. This made Ari'shan furiously angry but he had to
maintain control. He had to admit a grudging respect for the
effectiveness of the system and its crews sheer audacity sneaking in
between the biggest gathering of Dilgar warships to date, but they
had still hidden themselves and used guile instead of engaging in a
straight fight, and that offended his sensibilities.
The three
fighters checked in, all operational. "Orders sir?"
"We hold
here." Ari'shan said. "Attacking that is suicide for fighters.
I'm requesting warship support."
"I can take it." Dagger
Eleven said. "Cover me."
"I said hold." Ari'shan
snapped.
But the fighter was already on the move, four missiles
held under its wing.
"I won't get close." The errant fighter
replied. "Just enough so they can't stop these."
The Thorun
blasted ahead for a few seconds, then unleashed all four missiles in
a ripple volley before breaking away. "Nuclear warheads
away."
"Nuclear weapons!" Ari'shan exclaimed. "You
idiot, the Warmaster wanted them alive!"
Utter silence reigned
in Dagger Eleven's cockpit.
"I'll let you tell Jha'dur why
you disobeyed two direct orders." He said. "You better pray she's
in a good mood."
"Now that was just a joy to watch."
Paul congratulated. "I love this little ship, did I mention
that?"
"She was born again bad ass." Toby laughed. "I bet
those cats never knew what hit them!"
Jenny smiled along, but
while it was a hell of a victory for the venerable freighter she had
to remind herself they were celebrating the deaths of twenty people.
Sure they were Dilgar, and sure she'd do the same thing again in a
heart beat, but she was a trained soldier and Special Forces
operative where killing was just a mundane task like setting up a
tent or cleaning her uniform. She held no passion for it, just a
skill, and certainly didn't rejoice in death. Especially not after
having to kill her former friend and more recently Traitor to Earth,
Agent Leung. It worried her that her friends felt joy at killing
these Dilgar and didn't really understand what that meant. Although
it worried her even more that they did understand and celebrated
anyway, and that was beginning to look true of Paul.
"They're
breaking away." She reported. "Probably calling in backup as we
speak."
"Let's hope we're clear by then." Paul said. "I
doubt they can move fast enough to run us down."
"Uh oh."
Toby stated with ominous foreboding, earning him a glare from
Paul.
"How many more times, don't say that!"
"One of
those fighters fired something our way, missiles."
"Jenny?"
Paul turned to look at her, wondering what her more accurate sensors
said.
"Nukes." She reported blankly. "Four nukes coming in
fast!"
"Shoot them down!" he ordered.
"I'll try but
I'm not that good." She was already locking the interceptors on.
"These guns are ageneration out of date, I couldn't get the
latest models!"
"Jors, drop the hammer, everything we've
got." Paul ordered quickly. "Full emergency thrust and standby
evasive, Toby, counter measures. Drop two screens now and standby on
noise makers."
The engines blazed as the Race shot
forward, interceptors working on full efficiency. It allowed them to
fire much larger bolts increasing the chance of a hit but put massive
strain on the capacitors, they had less than thirty seconds before
they burned out. Of course they only had fifteen until the missiles
hit, so if they missed fried capacitors would be the least of their
problems.
"Countermeasures away!" Toby reported. "Second
batch ready!"
"Ten seconds!" Jenny called. "This isn't
going to be fun!"
Two spheres fell from the Race and burs
topen in a black cloud. On the surface it looked like simple black
smoke but in fact contained a wide number of particles and compounds
designed to deflect and break up sensor returns across a wide range
of systems, with the black colouring helpfully blocking out visual
scans. One missile was decoyed, streaking off into the far distance
but the other three were smarter, two carried on clean through the
cloud and reacquired the freighter on the other side, and the third
popped up over the cloud and continued on.
"They're still with
us!" Jenny warned. It had bought them some time but not much.
"Jors, standby evasive starboard." Paul spoke with abstract
calm. "Toby, I want countermeasures fired to port."
The guns
chugged, miraculously bringing down the closest wildly swinging
missile. It exploded briefly in a flash of fuel but nothing else, the
warheads designed to arm only when right on top of their targets to
minimaise the risk to friendly units and neighbouring missiles. This
meant the other two rushed on without impediment.
"Five
seconds!"
"Hold steady." Paul intoned. "Steady."
Jenny
caught another missile, but she wasn't going to get the final one,
it was coming in too fast even for her interceptors. "This is
it!"
"Now!" Paul yelled.
In that moment Jors threw the
ship into a ninety degree turn, the sort of spin a Starfury pilot
would envy before putting everything that was left into the engines.
In the same instant Toby fired the second countermeasures from their
launchers, small missiles that broadcast a powerful false sensor
image designed to overpower a missiles guidance system and decoy the
incoming weapons after what appeared to be the real target while
letting the ship itself reach a safe distance.
It worked, the
Dilgar missile followed the decoys but by now it was travelling at an
extremely high speed catching up to the decoy in seconds. They were
designed to lure enemy weapons a hundred miles away from the friendly
ship, this one made it to just twenty.
Jenny had
never been caught in a nuclear explosion before, she'd sent plenty
on videos in her training, even talked to an older Earth Force
Captain who had taken a ship up against the Ch'Lonas and skimmed a
multi megaton blast, but this was something different. There was a
bright flash, intense but not nearly as impressive as she might have
expected. With no air there was no mushroom cloud or blast wave, but
there was enough energy put out to reach the freighter and flash boil
the outer layer from the port side hull.
The effects of losing
several tons of metal threw the ship hard to the side, bending the
reinforced bulkheads and opening up a score of minor breaches
throughout the ship. The EMP from the detonation shorted out the more
sensitive systems including the advanced sensors and the pinpoint
trackers on the interceptors, for a few seconds the flight deck went
dark before back up supplies kicked in.
"Main reactor safe!"
Jors called. "Engines are still on line!" he sounded genuinely
surprised. "And we're still making full speed!"
"You mean
we're still flying? Nothing blew up?" Toby was equally
surprised.
"Nothing vital." Jenny confirmed. "We're armed
and mobile."
"I love this ship." Paul slapped his chair arm.
"We rode out a nuke!"
"Yeah, but my lunch almost didn't."
Jors added. "Remind me not to eat before a job in the
future."
"Long range sensors are out, but I can still detect
those fighters." Jenny reported, getting back to business. "They're
shadowing us but keeping their distance."
"Smart move." Paul
grinned. "By the time they catch up we'll be long gone and
they'll be none the wiser. Keep us at full power."
It was Toby
again who broke the mood. "I don't want to say it, and I won't
say it."
"Say what?"
"We've got trouble. Again."
A
shape appeared at the edge of the sensors, something noticeably
bigger than the Space Race and moving fast to cut them
off.
"Dilgar Warship." Jenny said with an even tone, years of
training and practice suppressing the panic she felt. "Jashakar
class Frigate."
"Can it catch us before we meet the Delphi?"
Paul asked.
"Yeah." Jenny confirmed. "And it's packing
enough weaponry to out gun the Delphi if they meet, we were
still outfitting her when this mission came up and we never
finished."
Eventually the new EIA Jump ship would have a whole
arsenal of surprises, but they were still gathering the necessary
plasma cannons and missiles, right now she had a solid interceptor
grid and some light guns, enough to stop fighters but not much
else.
"We can't risk the Delphi." Paul said firmly.
"We'll handle this ourselves."
"What?" Toby spluttered.
"How? By showering them with our smashed ship and dead
bodies?"
"He's right Chief." Jors added. "This is a
warship we're talking about, a real one."
"One of Jha'dur's
personal fleet." Jenny also threw in some thoughts "They're not
going to be fools."
"We have one more surprise." Paul
smiled. "The gun pods."
"That's officially insane." Toby
snapped. "Even if we had nukes we're still a freighter! They'll
waste us the second they spot trouble!"
"Which is why the
powers that be gave us interceptors." Paul replied. "Jenny, are
they still working?"
"Enough." She confirmed. "But
targeting got screwed by that blast, I can't gurantee we'll stop
them all if the range gets too close."
"It'll have to do."
Paul considered. "We need to get close, real close. This is going
to be hard, but lets hope they want us alive. That gives us an
opportunity to hit them hard and hit them first. You with
me?"
Despite their doubts there was never going to be any
hesitation.
"All the way." Jenny stated with a smile. "Even
if you are crazy."
"Well, I just got comfortable in this
chair." Jors nodded.
"I guess it'll make a hell of a
story." Toby provided a lopsided grin. "And it'd be worth it
just to guess at Jha'dur's expression."
Paul grinned at
that. "It sure would. Okay, throttle back, make it look like that
nuke hurt us worse then it did, we lure them in and then drop the
hammer."
Ari'shan had no way to wipe the smile from his
face, despite everything he was actually pleased that the ship was
still alive if apparently crippled. In part he was glad that Jha'dur
would not fly into one of her rare angers at having the crew killed,
now capture was a possibility once again, but mostly he was just
impressed by the skill and luck these humans were displaying. They
had been underhanded getting here but were now proving worthy
adversaries. It would be an honour to present them to Jha'dur, and
hopefully she would heed his recommendation and treat them better
than she handled most captives.
"Dagger unit." He spoke to his
remaining wing mates. "I want you to hold here, I'm going to
check out that ship."
"Sir,that might not be wise." Dagger
four cautioned. "With respect." She quickly added.
"So
noted." He confirmed. "But I've seen what they can do, I am
ready to face them. Stay here, if they are defenceless you can help
me disable them for the Frigate to pick up. If not then I can escape
danger and retreat. That is all."
He opened the throttles and
closed in, setting a long curving path to the freighter which kept
him at a distance until the last few moments. He had seen the
interceptors and recognized them from the battle footage Jha'dur
had shown him from the Persephone. The ones on the warship had
better range and more raw power but the rate of fire and accuracy
were no different, an exceptionally dangerous system but he was
confidant he could evade their attack at medium to long range.
He
spotted the Frigate on sensors closing in and noticed the freighter
was altering course to avoid it, but it wasn't going to be able to
outrun it. The dedicated warship had engines that probably outmassed
the whole freighter, it was about three times larger overall and
packed a lot of firepower onto it's Frigate scale hull. The Dilgar
liked to make sure even the smallest ship had teeth, and this one was
no exception.
"Squadron Leader Ari'shan to Frigate,
respond."
After a few moments a cold voice returned his call.
"Combat Captain Lar'cas, Frigate Bow Blade
responding."
"Captain, I have orders from the Warmaster this
ship is to be taken with minimum damage."
"Those are our
orders too." The Captain confirmed. "The Warmaster want's them
alive." He grunted. "It would be more merciful just to kill them,
but the orders stand."
"I'm shadowing the freighter, she has
taken heavy damage to the port side and seems to be running at low
power."
"Our sensors agree." Lar'cas spoke distantly, as
if this mission were somewhat beneath him. "We're coming up on
their damaged side to make breaching easier."
"I'll watch
for escape pods or shuttles." Ari'shan stated. "They won't be
escaping, but they might try something else."
"We're ready
for them."
"Twenty dead officers thought the same. Be
cautious."
"We can handle this." The Captain dismissed. "We
appreciate your company, this will be over in a minute."
Ari'shan
hoped the Captain's confidence was well placed, but armed weapons
and kept his hand on the throttle just in case the humans had another
surprise.
"They're going to try and board us." Jenny
watched the Frigate getting closer. "They've got a boarding tube,
if they follow procedure they'll knock out our engines first, then
grapple us and extend the tube."
"But they need to get closer
for a clean hit." Paul said. "For all they know we're just a
regular freighter with better guns, one near miss and they could
shred our hull and blow a fuel tank."
"I guess so." She
checked out the lone Thorun to Starboard, the same one that had
avoided two barrages of interceptor bolts. "They need to get close
to board anyway, I expect they won't shoot until they're ready to
latch on."
"Problem will be the gun pods." Jors said. "It
takes thirty seconds for them to go hot, and while they're powering
up everyone in the system is going to know what we're
planning."
"And it'll take less time than that to waste us."
Toby pointed out. "Even with the armour."
The two gun pods
mounted left and right on the central core of the ship came straight
from the Belt Alliance armoury, each one packed a medium plasma
cannon and eight missiles designed to give raider ships a very nasty
surprise. They had a fairly stealthy hull material and a sensor
jammer designed to broadcast the appearance of regular cargo in the
pod to enhance the illusion and draw in their enemies to a point they
couldn't escape from.
There were however three disadvantages to
the pods, first they had limited arcs, second they had limited
ammunition. Each plasma cannon was fed from a high intensity battery
also housed in the pod, which had the advantage of making it self
sufficient to a point where they could be detached from a fleeing
ship and still function, but had the disadvantage of allowing just
five rounds to be fired. A warship would draw its firepower from it's
main reactors and as long as it had fuel could shoot all day, but
with smaller reactors and less reaction mass no freighter could
realistically mount a sustained barrage so had to use batteries. Each
blast was equal to a main turret on a Hyperion class cruiser
which was a hell of a kick, but a cruiser could go through five round
sin two or three seconds, the Race was going to have to make
every shot count.
The third problem was charging time. The battery
took thirty seconds to feed the capacitors and create plasma for the
gun to fire, and in that time there would be no mistake what was
happening. Against slow moving Raider ships it was no great problem
but against a real warship, and a Dilgar one at that, it could get
messy.
"I'm trusting you to keep the interceptors working."
Paul said to Jeny with sincerity. "I don't know how many hits we
can take, but none at all would be good. We just fixed her up, and
the old girl's already suffered enough today."
"I'll do
what I can."
"Frigate is almost on us, less than thirty
miles." Toby said. "It's arming weapons."
"Try some
evasive action." Paul said. "make it look good."
"Frigate
matching speed." Toby was glued to the sensors. "She's cutting
engines, firing retros. Speed matched. Energy spike!"
"Jenny?"
"Let
them try." She said grimly, then brought interceptors to full
readiness and started the plasma cannon arming sequence.
Ari'shan
sensed the trap long before the weapons reactivated, he knew they
weren't going to go quietly and were bound to try something else.
The power readings went back up to full, the defences locked on and
most disturbing of all an entirely new weapon signature began
building in the middle of the ship.
"Captain, get some
distance!" He called, but apparently Lar'cas had seen the same
thing and was increasing power to engines, an instant later the
Frigate opened fire.
From his vantage point Ari'shan could see
the bolter cannons running into interceptor rounds, the range was so
close the freighter was barely stopping them, some just a dozen yards
from the hull, but as close as it was the little freighter was
holding it's own and putting power into it's own engines to stay
with the Frigate. The sight was remarkable, a warship of the Imperium
was actually being chased be a freighter a third of its size. Jha'dur
had been right, these people were worth talking to, but only if they
were stopped.
He dropped the Dart fighters nose and barrelled in,
with the interceptors busy no defensive fre rose up to meet him and
he had a clear path to the ship. He guessed he had two options, the
engines or the guns which he could attack. The guns were the most
tempting target, they were distracted and very dangerous but taking
them out would allow the Frigates guns to hit the Freighter, and in
their current full attack mode they could tear the ship apart before
Lar'cas could order a ceasefire. He angled on the engines, if he
could slow the ship down or disable it himself the Frigate could
withdraw and come back more carefully.
The freighter was really
pouring on the power now, far more than a regular ship it's size
but after what he'd seen Ari'shan was not surprised. Getting in
right behind the engines was not a good idea, the bright blue Ion
trails were hundreds of metres long as the vessel matched speeds with
the Frigate. It was gradually getting further away, it's superior
military engines giving it an edge but not enough.
He matched
speed and twisted the fighters nose, travelling alongside the
freighter but facing its engine assembly. With a last look at the
weapons to make sure they were still busy he started firing, the
first rounds doing virtually nothing to the armour. He perservered,
hitting the same spot again and again waiting for a chink to open.
Absently he wished for a couple of anti ship missiles, but using
autonomous weapons went against his philosophy of decided battles by
skill, not simple button pushing, so he would finish this the hard
way.
The Space Race jolted with another rimpact.
"Would
somebody swat that little mosquito?" Toby demanded.
"We need
the guns to hold off the Frigate." Paul replied evenly. "Let
Jenny work, we're almost there."
One of the particle bolts
finally penetrated the defences hitting the top most sensor pod,
fifty million credits worth of sensors vanished in a blink, the pod
left looking like a partially opened rose with steel petals. Paul
grimaced, but his ship was undamaged and just about ready to hit
back.
"We're up!" Jenny yelled. "Main guns ready, missiles
fuelled!"
"Hard about, line us up and open fire!" Paul lost
his cool finally, the excitement ruling him now. He was going one on
one with a Dilgar ship far bigger than his little freighter and he
had them right where he wanted them. "Take them out!"
The Race
altered course to broadside the Frigate, the range had opened
somewhat but they were still close enough for the Plasma cannons to
do full damage without radiated much energy into space. Explosive
bolts blew away the panels to the gun pod an the starboard side, the
sheets of metal spinning away and clearing the line of fire for the
big gun. The simple black barrelled cannon made a last adjustment,
four missiles on either side venting gas as they too prepared final
ignition, and then Jenny hit the control.
The Race was not
built with military grade cannons in mind, and as the cannon fired
the freighter shuddered from the recoil with each shot shaving a
percentage off it's velocity. Green balls of plasma crossed the gap
in no time, tearing into the relatively thin armour of the Dilgar
warship and causing massive internal damage. The engines took the
first hit, the blindingly hot Earth produced material knocking out
the two closest thrusters as it burned its way from the outside in.
Unfortunately the recoil had also had also changed the Race's
axis throwing off the aim of the main gun, the next two rounds missed
by a few feet while the thirs barely scored the lower hull, a great
molten gash running the length of the ship. With three of the
priceless shots squandered Jenny had to make the last one count. She
made a last minute adjustment, then fired one last time. The green
shot struck the closest side on the Dilgar ship, travelling along its
length and shearing off almost its entire port side as it a
guillotine had invisibly severed the green hull. Several hundred tons
worth of metal fell away taking an entire gun turret with it, gas
billowed into space flaring briefly as it burned out in the cold.
"That
got him!" Toby cried out in exultation. "He's losing power,
engines going down, he's switching weapons from defense to
offense."
"He's going to try and take us with him." Paul
noted. "But if he's switched all power from point defences to his
main guns it gives us an opening. Jenny, missiles."
With the
plasma cannon expended the antiship missiles were the Races
remaining heavy weapons. They had been pre-fuelled and armed meaning
all Jenny had to do was launch them. The missiles were standard short
range single stage dual warhead devices commonly used on Corvettes
and other escort ships coming in at about twenty metres in length,
half the size of capital ship missiles and a quarter the size of
those used on dedicated Missile ships and fixed defenses. They tended
to travel quite slow and with point defenses the Dilgar ship would
have been able to shoot them down quite easily, but right now the
ship had no defenses and was extremely vulnerable.
The clamps
holding the weapons in place and with a push from the EM launch rails
the missiles sailed away, the engines igniting in blue flame a moment
after they cleared the Space Race's side. The eight missiles
split up and drove in from different directions taking evasive action
despite the lack of small weapons fire coming up from the Frigate.
"Lar'cas had realised his mistake and was re-routing power to his
pulsar turrets, but it was going to be too little too late.
The
missiles entered their terminal phase, the guidance systems linked to
each other timed the approach so all eight hit at the same time in a
sequence designed to split open the Dilgar hull with the first
missiles and then gut the inside with the last few. The lead missile
struck the already weakened section of the Frigate, it was designed
like most Earth Force anti ship missiles with two warheads, the first
was an intense plasma charge that explode don impact. Its job was to
fire a jet of plasma through an enemy hull and burn through to create
a channel for the larger secondary warhead to pass through and then
explode itself under the armour. On a regular missile that secondary
warhead would be a nuclear device ranging from a hundredth of a
kiloton right up to tens of megatons, Earth knew area affect
explosions in space were not the most efficient use of nuclear
weapons, but if it could get a warhead to explode inside a target
then even a tiny nuke would be more than enough to completely destroy
an enemy cruiser.
For all Jenny's influence and for all Director
Durban's insistence there was no way Earth Force was going to give
nuclear weapons to civilians, they would turn a blind eye to old
interceptors but not multi megaton missiles. The Race's
missiles therefore had a conventional explosive warhead, but still
the most powerful the EIA could convince the Navy to part with. It
might not be enough for a cruiser, but the eight of them were more
than sufficient for a Frigate.
The first four missiles bored in
and exploded, splitting the green hull open and creating bulging
rents and gaps across the upper surface of the ship, weakpoints that
were then exploited by the last four weapons. They punched deep into
the tangled innards of the Frigate and then exploded, shredding the
interior and triggering secondary explosions from bow to stern.
Debris and jets of coloured flames leapt away from the dissolving
vessel, torn and twisted chunks of metal were catapulted away from
their bulkheads as the outer skin melted away revealing skeletal
girders and braces within, black lines against the white fire. Within
seconds it was over, the Bow Blade an emaciated blackened form
surrounded by ice crystals and wreckage.
Paul tapped his arm
rests. "Did I mention I love this ship?"
Ari'shan
suddenly felt extremely alone and extremely exposed. His warship
support had been vanquished, his squadrons decimated and now he was
alone facing a now unoccupied interceptor grid at point blank range.
The danger of this situation was clear for even the simplest pilot to
see, he immediately broke away and took the wildest evasive action he
could think off trying to get away from the interceptors kill
zone.
The gun turrets were already rotating into place, four
separate weapons tracking and locking onto his Thorun, warning alarms
sounding in a dozen different tones all getting closer in tone and
pitch to each other. When they merged into one identical clarion call
it would mean the guns had him dead in their sights, which given the
accuracy of interceptors would not end well. The Freighter didn't
wait for a clean lock, it fired early taking Ari'shan by surprise,
he barrel rolled the fighter as bright energy glared past strobing
the instruments in his cockpit.
The fighter was shaking as he spun
it for all it was worth, his wings bending and flexing as the wing
tip mounted engines pulled in opposing directions to maintain the
spin, a cartwheel hurling him clear of the guns and out to safety. It
almost worked. One of the rounds was on target, catching his left
side wing tip engine. The heavy cylinder exploded, gouting flame and
ions in all directions and throwing the already wildly spinning
fighter into an even more radical manoeuvre. Ironically the sudden
push probably saved Ari'shan launching him far enough away in such
a random direction that the rest of the salvo missed.
He battled
to stay conscious, focusing on the controls and ignoring the
disorientating stars streaking past as white lines outside. He tensed
every muscle to keep his blood flowing and cut power to the damaged
engine before activating the extinguishers. The flames went out but
with a severed fuel line it was still jetting reactant into space
which was still pushing his fighter in a sidewise direction, the
black and mangled remains of the engine a tumour on the wing tip. He
countered with the surviving right hand side engine, adjusting it's
thrust to compensate for the loss of his left hand engine and then
added power to the main centreline thrusters behind his cockpit. He
could barely keep the nose straight but he had a job to do, and so
with a grim visage he pointed to the where his sensors told him the
human ship was and accelerated.
"We made it." Jors was
grinning widely. "Crossing orbit of the target planet."
The
freighter, now restored to its shot up and blackened appearance
rounded the uninhabited world and put the body of the planet between
itself and the Dilgar fleet hiding from their sensor scans. The Race
had performed incredibly well, it's interceptors had stopped a
barrage of energy weapons and made short work of two Dilgar squadrons
while its hidden gun pods had destroyed a frigate. Compared to the
under gunned and under powered ship of last year Paul Calendar's
new home was an entirely different creature, yet still had the heart
and soul of his original vessel. It was a perfect combination. Most
importantly of all of course was the fact they had succeeded
completely in their mission.
"There she is." Jenny spotted.
"Right on schedule."
Holding position sheltering behind the
planet was the Delphi, equally battered looking and ancient
but in the process of being modernised. It was a sight that elicited
sighs of relief all round, that ship was their only ticket home and
to see it waiting patiently to save them was more rewarding that
staring at the biggest pile of jewels and and gold they could
imagine.
"Space Race," A voice hailed them. "What is
your status?"
"We found a little trouble." Paul admitted,
not that it was anything new to this ship. "Sorry about your
sensors, I hope they weren't too expensive."
They were of
course, but if the mission had been a success the EIA would gladly
accept the cost as casualties of war. "Did you accomplish the
mission before you lost the sensors?"
"We got everything."
Paul smiled. "Undeniable proof the Dilgar are using weapons of mass
destruction against completely defenceless civilians, including
biological weapons."
"Excellent work." The Delphi
officer sounded genuinely pleased. "We're preparing to jump
now."
"This is it." Paul said confidently. "All Earth
needs to finally do something about the Dilgar."
Jenny shook her
head. "Maybe, but I wouldn't get my hopes up."
"They're
murdering billions of people." He returned. "And we have the
proof, Earth has to intervene to stop this!"
"And I hope they
do." Jenny said. "But just don't count on it."
"It's
the right thing to do, you know what the Dilgar are like."
"I
know." She remembered her encounter in Geneva and shuddered
imperceptibly. "I know, but that isn't how Governments work. It
is morally the right thing to do, and Ihope they do something, but I
just can't see them sending in the Marines for something happening
so far away. I'm sorry."
Paul looked visibly upset.
"Somethings going to have to be done about this, I don't know
what but it had better happen. The Dilgar have to be stopped."
Jenny
agreed, she felt as strongly about it as any human. But there was a
part of her which questioned whether that was even possible, so far
nothing had stopped the Dilgar and she wasn't sure if anything ever
would.
The four Thoruns thundered around the planet,
Ari'shan's plane reverberating with the exertions of the engines
being pushed beyond limits. With a full functional fighter he had
been little more than a plaything for the Earth ship, in his current
state he was doomed, as were the three rookies with him. However
meeting their ends at the guns of an enemy was a better choice than
going home and telling Jha'dur what had happened. She wasn't the
sort of Warmaster to kill people for bad luck, indeed even if they
had simply tried and failed to capture this ship she probably
wouldn't hold it against them unlike a lot of other senior officers
who had a tendency to execute people on the spot if they failed
missions. Jha'dur at least understood that sometimes circumstances
were against her warriors.
However they had not simply failed, but
disobeyed an order and failed. While only one of their number had
fired nuclear weapons in violation of Jha'dur's wish for
prisoners the squadron would stand together when facing punishment,
and although not officially a member Ari'shan would stand with them
as honour demanded. This time he doubted Jha'dur would make an
exception for him, she couldn't do that twice. It was probably for
the best, at least this enemy was a worthy one and his death would be
an honourable one.
The flight crossed the terminator of the planet
and entered orbit on the far side expecting to see the Freighter,
instead they saw nothing.
"What happened?" Dagger Eleven
questioned. "Where is it?"
"Go active on sensors."
Ari'shan ordered. He watched his own stuttering display, it showed
a faint ion trail and then nothing. It was as if the ship had simply
vanished. The humans had been tricky, but not so much they could
vanish into thin air.
"Was there anything in the logs to suggest
a jump engine on that vessel?" he demanded.
"No sir, even in
combat it didn't have enough power to run a jump engine."
"It
can't just vanish!" Eleven called. "It isn't possible!"
And
yet there was nothing to be seen, the ship was gone.
"This is
over." Ari'shan said. "Return to base, I will report to
Warmaster Jha'dur in person."
"I can't go back." Eleven
said. "I can't."
"We have nothing else to do." Ari'shan
replied. "Form up, there are three cruisers heading this way to
support us, we will land on them."
"I take responsibility."
The pilot stated. "Make sure the Warmaster knows that."
He
turned his fighter towards the planet and broke formation. Ari'shan
did not try to stop him, nor did he begrudge the decision. He watched
the Thorun accelerate rapidly pointing straight at the centre of the
barren world and appreciated the act. By taking responsibility and
then taking his own life the young pilot had probably saved the
surviving squadron members, if Jha;dur followed tradition she would
deem it an acceptable payment for the mistakes made in this
conflict.
He saluted his comrade, known only for an hour or two
but long enough to finally earn his respect. Then with a final look
at where the freighters ion trail stopped he turned the fighter home
and pushed his ruined craft and ruined squadron back to the fleet.
