by Skyler Grant
“You sure you even want me along?” Sylax asked.
Anna said, “You hurt me and you broke our ship. I’m not in love with that, but you’re always dangerous and we’re going to send you where we don’t care what you hurt.”
It was harsh, but it brought a smile to Sylax. “Good.”
“Caya, you and I will go to the second planet and try to get Hot Stuff back. Sylax, I want you to lead the forces reclaiming the Flare on Casanali Three and make sure they don’t interfere with us. Emma, do avoid blowing up our entire fleet with this,” Anna said.
I said, “You do realize they’re a system equivalent in many ways to Sol? We can’t simply go in with the Graven no matter how powerful you feel.”
“We’ll go in with some Juggernauts, but I don’t want a full naval battle. If they want to talk, we’ll listen. Regardless, we’re leaving with our ship and our friend, and if they stand in the way of that we knock them the fuck down,” Anna said.
I thought Anna was overstating things a bit, then I understood. Of late we kept running up against forces that were bigger and more powerful, and fighting wasn’t really an option. Anna was itching to punch something back. This colony had picked the wrong time to start a fight.
We couldn’t go at once. However dire the situation might be for Hot Stuff, we still had to prepare, we still had to plan.
Repairs to the Graven took another six hours, Sylax had done massive trauma to almost all of the biological systems. What could bleed, she’d made bleed. If it were a bone, she broke it—a nerve, she made it register agony.
Despite what Anna said I also made sure our fleets were ready. A few ships were on missions that couldn’t be spared. Even so I had a respectable armada at my command.
Eighty-One Star Juggernauts, twelve Martian Arks, seventeen Venusian Swampships, four Fallen Angels, two Divine Phaetons, and thirty-One Scholarium Orbs. The newest members of the empire weren’t yet ready for space combat, but the Haka had a lot of ships I was working to incorporate into our military paradigm. Satisfied, I brought up the stats of the fleet for one last check.
Star Juggernauts
Role: Multi-Purpose Carriers and SCIENCE Vessels
Loadout: 45 SCIENCE Shuttles, 120 Swarm combat vessels
110 GSU (Galactic Standardized Units) shield strength.
205 GSU regenerative Bioarmor
3 Dimensional-Reactors
118 Bioreactors
Crew: 80,000 Networked Drones
Backbone of the Sol Fleet all Juggernauts are at their heart SCIENCE vessels with powerful sensors. Their offensive capability primarily comes from their Swarm vessels, powerful strike craft capable of deliverable coordinated strikes to enemy weak points.
Martian Ark
Role: Heavily Armored Troop Carrier
45 GSU (Galactic Standardized Units) shield strength
230 GSU Armor
1 Dimensional-Reactor
40 Bioreactors
Crew: 500, Capacity for 100,000 Passengers
The Martian Arks are massive ships that were originally designed for extra-planetary colonization and were later re-purposed for invasion craft. Current experimental versions contain extensive command, control, and tactical centers attempting to leverage Martian precognition for use in combat.
Venusian Swampship
Role: Quick Strike
Loadout: 200 Jellyfighters
30 GSU shield strength.
100 GSU regenerative Bioarmor
80 Bioreactors
Psionic Dampeners
Crew: 3,000
The Venusian Swampships were designed to end combat before it got close to their homeworld. Since the Venusians have joined the empire, efforts have been underway to merge their biological construction with empire technology. Their most notable feature is their swarms of fighters utilizing high-powered plasma weaponry.
Fallen Angel
Role: Bombardment
80 GSU shield strength
110 GSU regenerative Bioarmor
145 Bioreactors
15 Long-Range Power Projector Cannons
Crew: 2000
The Righteous once fielded one of the best equipped navies of Earth. The Fallen are a return to that paradigm as they have aggressively incorporated empire technology to old designs. Fallen Angels are fast, maneuverable, and by way of their power-projector cannons can deliver a wide-array of offensive effects.
Divine Phaeton
Role: Healing
420 GSU shield strength
25 Divine Reactors
Crew: 3,000
The Divine have always been the most technologically backwards of the empire populations and they remain so. The Phaetons show the intriguing possibilities of that approach for it is built completely absent of mainstream empire technology. Atmosphere maintained by deities of nature, power supplies by deities of the sun, Phaetons are unique vessels containing healing groves capable of both short and long-range regeneration of the injured.
Scholarium Orb
Role: Multipurpose
150 GSU shield strength
150 GSU armor
2 Crystal Enhanced Nuclear Reactors
Crew: 5,000
Each Scholarium Orb is a barony until itself, and as distinctive as the Powered who rules it. With the advent of manufactured power crystals the Scholarium’s Powered population has been rapidly swelling. These vessels are their testament that they are not done as a civilization.
They were a diverse assortment of vessels, just as the empire had become diverse. While some members of all populations were now Networked, loyalty and obedience remained greatest amongst my own manufactured drones.
If necessary I could pull in vessels from anywhere in the empire, but for the coming combat I hoped to get by only with Juggernauts, Angels, and Orbs.
25
The thing about battles in an unknown solar system is that you don’t quite know what you’re going to encounter until you get there.
Before sending in the Graven to the second planet of Casanali I sent in a trio of Juggernauts. As the dimensional-wake around them faded they found themselves surrounded by a fleet of some twenty ships.
Not all were military, but twelve were. Beyond these, scans reported that most of the system planets hosted human settlements. It was less than a minute until a comm request was coming through. Even though she wasn’t quite there yet I forwarded it to Anna on the bridge of the Graven.
The video that came through was from a dark-haired man in his forties with a thick mustache.
“You’ve entered the territory of the Casanali Collective. Identify yourselves or we will open fire,” the man said.
They had more ships, but none were the size of a Juggernaut, not that it necessarily mattered. It was all about the power of the technology behind the weapons and they were running sensor scramblers. I’d get past them with time. For now, it essentially made my readings a puzzle I had to decipher.
“I’m Anna, the Empress of Sol and Vekora, and a person you’ve already pissed off. Don’t make it any worse for yourself,” Anna said.
The video feed froze and after a few seconds the man was replaced by an ornately attired young officer. “Devon Vines, head of the Casanali Collective. We’ve already captured the spy ship you sent before. It was filled with garbage technology. Stand down and maybe I’ll let you be my new bed-warmer. I suppose I could use a break from young and pretty.”
“Well, not exactly polite, but I really don’t think beggars can be choosers,” I said to Anna.
Anna killed the comm.
She said, “Right. They’re not afraid of us, and they really want me pissed off and rushing in. What are we missing?”
“They’ve got a large shipyard in orbit around the first moon of the third planet. The Flare is currently there. A large navy—sensors so far have detected over one hundred and fifty warships. I doubt it was intended for us, but they’re planning to invade somebody. They’re not docked and seem crewed, a
nd another thirty are in various stages of construction,” I said.
“No wonder they’re not worried. You think when the Flare arrived they really thought we were spying on them?”
“That is what he implied, so blatant that even you could pick it up. Perhaps you are developing simple social skills?” I said.
“I’ve developed a big case of pissed the fuck off,” Anna said, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “But I’m sticking with what I said. No big naval battle and that is exactly what they’re asking for.”
That did seem to be their objective.
“How do you want to proceed? They’re waiting for an answer,” I said.
“Bring in enough firepower for us to take out their forces around the second planet. Sylax hits the shipyards, retrieves the Flare, and wipes them out on exit,” Anna said.
Construction facilities were often more valuable than the ships themselves, and the personnel harder to replace. That was a bit of a feat without a pitched naval battle, but not an impossible one.
I brought in the next wave.
Six more Juggernauts joined the first three around the second planet, launching fighters on arrival. My sensors started to penetrate their scattering technology. They had more of a technological edge than I’d expected, but it could be overcome.
They were using modified Banok hull designs, and as part of our library pilfering we had some technological specifications on those. Thick and heavy forward armor was designed to shield ships in an armada with little maneuvering. The Banok race were armored behemoths themselves who tended to charge their foes, a trait they’d carried into space.
The local humans here weren’t idiots, they had added extra shielding to the rear, but they were still the weakest part of their ships and one my Swarm fighters should be able to reach.
At the same time as I began the attack there I sent in the Angels. Anna might want to avoid a massive space battle, but I had no problem stealing free hits. I brought them in and began to hit the enemy fleet at long range. With the distance, they couldn’t respond.
Once they were distracted it was more Juggernauts, none remaining long. Teleporting in range of the shipyards only briefly for squads of Aegis troops to teleport over.
The core buildings of the shipyards were shielded, but the outer docks were not. That was acceptable. Our ground forces were powerful with all the enhancements I’d built into them.
The Casanali ships had a few surprises. One actually rammed a Juggernaut, blue energy rippling around it that seemed to give it three times the mass it should have. Bioarmor ruptured and crew died as I brought in another ship to replace it.
Despite the loss, the battle for the second planet was largely going our way. The Graven had already jumped in and Anna and Caya made their way down to a landing site. Armed soldiers in exo-suits moved to stop them. Caya aimed for the face and never missed. Anna simply tore in half any that got in her way.
Scientists fled from their equipment and Caya stepped up to study their readings.
“Huh,” Caya said, after only thirty seconds. I wasn’t getting much of a view through her camera feed. I had drones checking the other equipment and interfacing with their computer system.
I understood Caya’s confusion. This was unlike anything we’d encountered before. Particles and trace materials not local to the system showed there had definitely been a connection to somewhere else, recently, and while there were a few indications of dimensional energy it shouldn’t have been enough to form a portal.
“This doesn’t match either phenomenon we were expecting,” I said.
“If it were easy, this mythical portal to a treasure trove wouldn’t be so mythic,” Caya said.
Caya was right, and I was also well aware that neither one of us had figured out the emergency point. I’d dismissed and not even studied Warmonger’s research, but Warmonger had been right.
I switched over to some of my drones accompanying Sylax. Their heart rates were up and their adrenaline coursing. I understood why as soon as I jumped into one. Sylax was having a big effect on the station environment. The walls were dripping blood and in the distance there were the sounds of terrified screaming.
“Well, your new powers are just a delight,” I said.
Sylax grinned within her battle armor. “We’ve barely had to fire a shot once my powers kicked in. Am I killing any of ours?”
We had lost drones in the expedition. I’d sent in a lot to create as much noise as possible so they didn’t focus their efforts on Sylax and her team. I needn’t have bothered the way things were going. The losses so far did appear to be confined to combat. The locals seemed to be using kinetic weapons but with some sort of temporary mass enhancers added, like what I’d seen in orbit. Being hit by a round from one of their guns was quite literally like being hit by a truck. Even against Aegis armor and shields they were effective. We’d have been losing a lot more if the environment itself hadn’t been turned into a horror show.
“I know you’ll be disappointed, but no, your innocent murder count seems low. Do you know what you’re doing?”
“There has always been a darkness inside me, Emma, a monster I kept sated and let out to play sometimes. Now that monster is real, I can feel it, I can unleash it,” Sylax said.
We’d given Sylax a crystal that let her take her sociopathic mind and give it tangible form and shape. I wondered what a crystal like that would have done if it were actually in Anna like intended. Anna was always trying to fix things.
Sylax and my drones stepped into a large hanger. A half-built battleship occupied one bay and beside it was the far smaller Flare. They’d partially disassembled it, much of the armor stripped away and systems savaged.
“If you want us to fly that thing out here I don’t think it is happening,” Sylax said.
They’d done a number on the engines, but they probably hadn’t touched the reactors. If so there wouldn’t be anything of the ship left at all given their instability.
A security team was coming through a far door. Better armor than the others we’d encountered, weapons too. They’d figured out our real target and sent a team disciplined enough to fight through the living nightmare out there.
“Take them out and get control of the vessel. They’ve got the systems locked down and I need to talk to Warmonger. We’ll figure out what to do next afterwards,” I said.
26
I switched my focus back to Caya and Anna.
I told them, “We’re working on liberating Warmonger. They mostly disassembled the Flare, but I’m hoping we can manage a dimensional shift even so. I take it you two have been absolutely useless in the meantime?”
“Do you never bother to count the bodies?” Anna asked.
“I wasn’t aware you had the basic mathematical ability,” I said.
Well, perhaps there were a dozen more from the last time I’d checked in. Anna at least had been putting her time to productive use.
“I think we’re dealing with a secondary dimension independent of either the origin or destination point in this dimension. They’re utilizing a hub,” Caya said, her eyes glowing a particularly vibrant hue of green.
It was an interesting idea. It made sense in many transportation routes. If you had many people on Earth wanting to go to Mars, and a few on Venus and Mercury both wanting to go to Mars, it could make more logistical sense to ferry passengers from Venus and Mercury first to Earth, before then joining with passengers there on the final leg of their journey.
With dimensional travel you could shift your location directly from one location to another, but the mathematical calculations to do that were complex and became far more so if you hoped to lessen the time between those jumps. I think what Caya had in mind was some sort of inter-dimensional midpoint. The reduced energy required to open a bridge from such a place could explain the low energy levels we were detecting.
“Something similar might explain how the crystal ships transition so quickly as a def
ensive measure,” I said.
“It gives me a place to begin here. I’m going to set up some field enhances and see if I can’t get a lock on the original trace. Keep them off us,” Caya said.
I was trying. Between Sylax and the Angels, the fleet had a lot of other concerns to worry about. The interior of the docks was filled with flashing red as security klaxons wailed. Sylax and a force of drones were in a shootout with the security team which had arrived. She’d managed sent a team of technicians ahead into the Flare.
The locals might not have understood Warmonger’s technology, but they’d severed all of his connections with the ship’s systems. As soon as my drones fused a new one the speakers began to blare.
“THE PUNY INTELLIGENCE HAS ARRIVED NOT TOTALLY ABANDONING THE FAR SUPERIOR AND MORE DOMINANT EXPLORERS OF THE GALAXY! IS THE PATHETIC FLESH THING CAPTAIN RESCUED?”
I said, “We’re working on it. I really do wish you’d learn to speak without the screaming. We need to know how you determined the arrival location of the doorway Hot Stuff went through.”
Warmonger provided his theory. It was, as I expected, complete gibberish that relied upon the spectral state of the three nearest stars and the color frequency they combined to make. It didn’t make a sense, but it also corresponded precisely to the one hundred and seven last appearances of the gateway and even more importantly proved predictable.
“Hook this insane relic up to the communications hub. If you’d like to get brutal vengeance back on your captors, do feel free. They aren’t council-protected and Anna hates them,” I said.
“THE SQUISHY UNDERCLAD MONARCH SHOWS UNUSUAL WISDOM! WE WILL CRUSH OUR FOES AND MAKE THEM RUN SCREAMING ON THEIR LITTLE ORGANIC LEGS!” Warmonger bellowed.
I detected his computational matrix shifting his focus towards the planet. I’d have preferred he deal with the fleet instead, but I wasn’t in a mood to complain. The more places we were distracting them the better things were.