by D. R. Rosier
Even if they did figure it out, it would only be two more things to add to the list after everything went down. We didn’t have enough time to finish all the scout-destroyers, time wasn’t a luxury against either enemy.
I added, “There may be a low-tech answer. Do you have anyone that can infiltrate Kaprorix or Xulia? I’d bet they have a separate military data-net, if we can subvert someone with access to it, or even question them, we could get the locations of the cloaked or hidden assets.”
Vik grunted, “Jillintara, send those suggestions to our scientists. As for the spy idea, that’s kind of why we’re doing this now, visiting the worlds. We don’t exactly have a counterintelligence group.”
“Right.”
I checked the settings, because why not. The shields were active, and the defense program was online. If ships appeared out of nowhere, they might have surprise, but we’d respond quickly.
It wasn’t until we exited the wormhole that the attack I was expecting happened, but unfortunately it didn’t happen at all the way I expected it to. Only about half the ships were through, and we also hadn’t had enough time to drop to the back of the formation…
“Shielded missiles! Four hundred of them coming from aft.”
There were no ships visible as I’d expected, I had a feeling we’d just dropped into a minefield of missiles which activated upon detecting us. There were no ships to fight back against, for all I knew they’d dropped off the missiles and had already left.
Fuck, we should have come in at an unpredictable and random point, instead at the obvious point of entry for the Raitov system from Vehiri. Hindsight is pointless, but I should have thought of it. The other ships were sitting ducks, or at least their missile laser defense system wasn’t nearly powerful enough to stop a missile with shields. Of course, some of the missiles still got spoofed by electronic countermeasures. All of that went through my mind in a micro-second as the defense systems responded, and I helped with prioritizing assignments.
The rest of our ships came through their wormholes, our ship started to fire, and the missiles were among our formation all at the same time.
The ship had hundreds of dimensional ports connected to the ports inside the blue giant Sirius, but it could only calculate so many attacks at once. If the missiles had come from farther away, we could have easily gotten them all, but it was all over within a few seconds. Talk about shitty luck, space was big.
Multiple spearing lines of blue plasma seemed to appear out of nowhere. They sliced through the shields like a hot knife through butter, and the missiles exploded in bright flashes. I felt like a selfish bitch, but I had to prioritize against the missiles locked onto our ship. Not only was it policy to protect your own ship first and only then aid others, but this ship was protecting the emperor, he was the empire.
One hundred and ninety-six of the missiles were spoofed, and ignored by the targeting systems. Unfortunately, fifteen of those found other ships in the formation by accident before exiting harmlessly on the other side. Fortunately, they didn’t all find the same ship.
Out of the two hundred and four remaining, our ship managed to destroy about twenty a second, sixty-two of them to be exact. My new system kicked ass, and honestly this type of ambush was the only way we’d be taken out. Even with an ambush, if we had fifty-one scout destroyers instead of just one, we’d have gotten all the missiles.
The rest of them hit ships, with the fifteen accidental hits, that was one hundred and fifty-seven missiles. If each ship was hit three times, we’d have been fine. However, that wasn’t the case.
Three ships took fifteen of the missiles, and exploded in bright flashes of fire. Two more took more than ten, eleven and thirteen respectively. They were both taken out of the fight, such as it was, but were still there. The rest of the ships were hit by six missiles or less, including ours, and our shields absorbed the punishment. Many of them didn’t get hit at all, toward the front of the formation.
Jillintara said, “We lost three sir, two need search and rescue. No sign of the ships that dropped off the missiles. My readings indicate they were cloaked sir, the missiles I mean, and weren’t fired from a ship.”
“Order two of the destroyers to pick up survivors. Suggestions?”
I said, “Chances are there are more out there, unless we were tremendously unlucky. I’d suggest launching some multi-function orbs to lead the formation by at least ten light seconds, set to emulate destroyers. If there are more out there, we’ll set off the trap and remove the missiles before they get too close. I also suggest we send a multifunction orb through first for every wormhole we create, and do the same thing to draw out any traps if possible. Obviously, if it’s an emergency we won’t be able to wait but…”
I trailed off, and wondered what else I’d overlooked. Being predictable wasn’t a good idea. This could have been countered easily, and our enemy was far from stupid.
Vik grunted, “I want you to send twenty cloaked orbs to Xulia and Kaprorix, and start deep scanning the likely targets. I want to know which one of them built this ghost fleet before we go there. Find it.”
“Yes sir.”
I opened a tiny three-inch diameter wormhole to Xulia, and sent twenty through, and did the same for Kaprorix. Then I asked Myra to control them and do a deep search of any celestial bodies large enough to hide a fleet and ship building facility. I knew she was bored, and Jillintara definitely wasn’t. She was already running two bridge stations, the ship itself, and controlling the decoy orbs in the fleet, not to mention the protective orbs around me, Vik, Telidur, herself, Solyra, and Cyntariel. Oh, the queen mother too, Dessia.
Point was, Jillintara was amazing, but damned busy enough.
Myra was already doing a few things for me, other orbs that were kind of a backup plan I hadn’t told anyone about, simply to keep it off the damned data net which our enemy could read, and of course she was also controlling the moon power station and assembling the equipment for creating the A.I.s bodies in another facility, but all of that wasn’t nearly enough to challenge her abilities.
I said, “Myra will keep us updated directly through me or Jill, obviously we don’t want that on the military-net status updates.”
Vik said, “Alright, move us in system, slowly.”
Telidur said, “Aye sir, the rescue efforts are almost complete.”
“There is some good news in all this though. I can’t imagine the traitor’s fleet had more than a hundred ships. If they did, it would have been a perfect time to attack. This was nothing but another type of assassination attempt, whoever is behind the fleet is keen to avoid a direct attack. Not that we should be overconfident, we need to end it soon. Whether it’s Tek or Jervistad behind it all, or both, they could be building the new ships too.”
Telidur nodded, “That’s the worst part, outside of a few things we’re hiding, like our new ship formation and us being cloaked, the enemy has access to all our tactical data.”
That was true, we were hiding a few small things from being logged on the military data-net in hopes of an advantage, but if we hid too much it would give things away.
I smirked, “I’m not sure how, but we may want to give some thought on using that fact to pass along false data and misdirect our common enemy.”
Vik shook his head, “Nope. We can get away with concealing a few small things, but to falsify data on the empire’s secure data-net is a crime.”
Oh, sucked to be the good guy. It was more fun when we were on the run. I wasn’t sure what that said about me, except maybe that short of murdering innocents, that I was very much a believer in the ends justifies the means. Was that a good thing?
We moved out less than a minute later, and we had no further issue on the way in.
Chapter Twenty-One
Everything on Raitov was just… bigger. The bugs weren’t a tall race, but they were a lot longer and wider than humanoids. Which led to very wide hallways, extremely large doorways and walkways in the city
. The vehicles were rather large as well. Hive like instincts or not, the city was a large metropolis, much like any other planet in the empire, except perhaps the architecture was quite different.
The shuttle came in for a landing near their version of a palace. It was a large extensive building and at least five stories high. The data-net had told me there were also four levels underground, the bottom level being a bunker and where the command center and secondary power station was set up.
It was also a little intimidating, there were thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of the Raitov citizens lined up in formation outside the palace, with a wide corridor that led through them and to the door. It was… disconcerting, and I had to remind myself they were loyal to the emperor. I was a bit ashamed at the thought, but they truly were alien, much more so than tall built men with blue skin.
To be fair, the Isyth were just as alien when it came to instincts. All the races were predator races, just like humans, but their other instincts didn’t align with humanity any more than the Raitov’s did. The lack of jealousy, how they dealt with sexuality, and their social system were just the most obvious differences.
Still, the Raitov looked alien, and there was a far stronger visceral reaction to that. One that I wasn’t very proud of. I was sure it would go away though, when I got to know some of them, and saw them as people instead of alien bugs.
We exited the shuttle, with Vik in the lead. I didn’t like it, but this was some kind of ceremonial welcome, and putting his guards in front would have been insulting. He was shielded, and Telidur and I were right behind him, I’d have to be happy with that. My eyes scanned the area, and my instincts were at odds. My feelings, that ability I couldn’t quantify, told us we were safe among faithful friends and Vik’s loyal citizens. My hind brain instincts as a human had my fight or flight raising its hackles.
Ironically, if there was really danger that wouldn’t be an issue, I’d have flipped that switch in my brain that kept me calm in dangerous situations, but since it wasn’t dangerous I actually felt fear. How fucked up am I?
As we walked toward the building, a hum built in the air. The Raitov were humming, a buzzing sound of an insect, but due to their size it was a very low tone. If I hadn’t read about this part of the welcome, I would have freaked out at that point and been sure we’d be attacked. But I had, read about it I mean. After the first few moments of startled surprise, it was almost a soothing noise.
We made it through the gauntlet, I mean the welcome ceremony, and went inside the building where we were met by Xylla. As I’d already indicated, it looked much like any other building, but the hallway dimensions were all wrong, wider and shorter. The doors along the hallways were ridiculous wide, but the taller Isyth would have to bow down a bit to not hit their head on the door frame. My five foot seven height would just about make it without me ducking.
Xylla bowed, or at least did the Raitov equivalent, and said, “Welcome your majesty. We have much to discuss, but perhaps you’d like to be shown to your rooms first and refresh yourselves?”
Vik replied, “Governor, a pleasure to see you, and I gratefully accept your hospitality. We can speak after the next meal?”
After the next meal, not during. We wouldn’t be joining them for dinner. From what I could gather, some found the Raitov’s table manners to be horrifying, not to mention their food. Plus, from what I understood the royal guest suite was built specifically with humanoids in mind.
We marched off, and as I’d expected the doors were still too wide, but inside the suite was a different story. The furniture and chairs were built for humanoid use, and of course there was a kitchen with supplies, as well as a food replicator for food compatible with our bodies.
Vik said, “Let’s settle in, eat, and go find out what Xylla has for us.”
Telidur nodded, “She did seem awfully excited about whatever she knew.”
I’d gotten the same impression, but their body language was very hard to read. At least, it wasn’t intuitive.
Vik replied, “We’ll find out soon enough.”
We walked into a typical meeting room, except of course for the size of the table and seating. On one end of the table sat Xylla, with two others. The other end of the table had humanoid sized chairs. Vik took the head of the table, or perhaps it was the foot. I wasn’t sure, and wasn’t going to ask. Telidur and I flanked him and Jillintara sat next to me.
Vik smiled, “It’s always pleasure to visit your planet Xylla, do you have concerns to bring before me?”
Xylla said, “My planet is content, and excited about the future. We too are building ships to explore and mine systems, thanks to Lori’s advancements. I have no concerns related to my own people, only related to the empire as a whole my liege.”
Vik nodded, clear permission for her to proceed.
Xylla continued, “Often to discover the root of things, we must look for finances.”
Oh, dear lord, I wanted to shoot myself for my stupidity. Why hadn’t I thought of that… follow the money. How basic can you get?
Xylla reported, “We have traced resource mining, shipping, and usage for all five planets.”
Vik looked startled.
Xylla smiled, or at least the Raitov equivalent.
“I had a lot of our people on it. Needless to say, several hundred million metric tons which was shipped to Xulia is unaccounted for. It is about a hundred destroyer ships worth of materials, including support shuttles and a full complement of missiles. We haven’t been able to track where it was sent, but we’re sure the resources never left that star system.”
Vik frowned, “So Tek is the one that built the fleet?”
Jillintara said, “In hindsight, that makes a lot of sense. It clears up some things for me. Of course, that doesn’t mean the fleet is still in that system, or hasn’t split up, or…”
Vik interrupted, “How so?”
Jillintara said, “He’s the one that was upset about our new ship. I think he was also upset about the over three hundred upgraded destroyers. Jervistad was just angry about your policy, he was excited about the more powerful ships.”
That cleared things up for me too. It seemed obvious now, Jervistad wanted power, and was angry because Vik had cut down his ambition, but Tek didn’t give a shit about his two-compromise solution because he’d always intended to just take it all for himself.
“Of course, we can’t assume Tek is still working alone now. I guess we’ll find out when we go to Kaprorix. It all depends on if Jervistad was able to swallow his pride, and let go of his own ambitions.”
Telidur looked at me startled, and I shrugged. I still didn’t think I was good at politics, but it was kind of clear, wasn’t it?
“Why didn’t Tek already attack with the ships?”
I frowned, “Because he’s too far outgunned. He’s also hoping to kill off the royal family so he doesn’t have to risk failure. If his private fleet attacks and loses, it will be enough proof to charge him with treason. I’m also sure he’s been upgrading all his destroyers from the old kind to the one I designed, with stronger shields and shielded missiles, not to mention another six plasma weapons on each ship.”
Xylla asked, “You think he will eventually attack?”
I shrugged, “Hard to say, how much does his ambition burn? Even if he upgrades all one hundred ships, and manages to build another ten, he’ll still be taking on four to one odds. He has to attack within the next few weeks, because if we get our scout-destroyers built he’s finished. Then again, if his assassins keep failing, he might just give up, or put it aside for a few years. I’d feel a lot better if I knew he was working alone, it depends on what happens when we meet Jervistad on Kaprorix.
“He’s probably also just as worried about the Suateran and Stolavii threats as we are. Even if he did use stealth attacks and manage to pick off our fleet a piece at a time, he might rise to usurp the empire only to be crushed under the foot of our true enemies a week or so later. He wants t
o rule the empire, but not for just a week. That’s probably another reason he’s taking the assassination and strike from the shadows route. Neither of us can afford the loss of the empire’s fleet, or even half of it.”
Vik said, “So…”
Telidur smirked, “It’s still complicated. Thanks to Xylla we have a new and very important piece of the puzzle, but we still need to go in and spring the trap to get this resolved. Unless, the probes we sent find the hidden ship yards.”
That was true, if we found those and had proof of them, Vik could demand those military assets be turned over to him. If he refused, we could move against him. I’d rather kill him than let the people of Kaprorix vote on a decision, but I’d live with it as long as Vik was safe. Still, the idea of them being independent bothered me. Even if they were cut off from the empire’s data-nets and fabrication designs, I had no doubt the asshole’s scientists would be able to build a ship just like the scout-destroyer.
Then where would we be? At war, that’s where.
Still, one piece of good news, maybe Jervistad wasn’t quite as bad as I’d thought he was. On the other hand, maybe he was.
Vik asked Xylla, “Any other concerns, or counsel?”
Xylla replied, “It is wise to allow the chance for Xulia to secede, but at the same time Tek must pay the price of his betrayal. He could have led his people to independence if he wanted, but he chose to take a path of usurpation, and take advantage of your brother’s perfidy for his own gain. He cares nothing for our people, who are on the verge of growing even more successful under your guidance. He’s clearly guilty of attempted regicide, traitorous actions, and he’s quite clearly guilty of treason when he didn’t turn over all assets to you after your brother’s illegal seizure of the throne was resolved. He must die. At the very least, that will give whoever takes over as ruler of their planet pause before pursuing war in yet another attempt to gain the throne over five worlds.”