Dark of the Void (Forged Alliance Book 1)

by Anthony James

  “Lieutenant Fredericks, your opinion, please!” he snapped.

  “A failure by RL Moseley to understand the likely outcome of his experiment, sir. I can’t put it any less bluntly than that.”

  “But what is happening?”

  “The reactor created a stasis field if I had to guess. It’s probably hemispherical and everything inside it is running through time at a different rate to everyone else. How long the effect will last I couldn’t begin to guess.” Fredericks finished with some obvious advice. “I’d strongly recommend we don’t enter the stasis field, sir.”

  “Hellburner impacts in three…two…one…” said Maddox.

  The missiles crashed into their target and detonated in a slowly expanding and irregular blast formed by the overlapping plasma spheres. It all happened in super-slow motion, as if the sensor stream had been reduced to a thousandth of its usual speed. Some of the HPA simulator scenarios ran at a twenty percent reduced speed, to give trainee officers a fighting chance of success while they learned the ropes. Here on Tibulon, the effect was magnified many times.

  “There’s the second warship!” said Becerra. “It’s above the facility, but the ground structures are still out of sight.”

  “The Langinstol has dropped out of lightspeed at a five-hundred-kilometre altitude!” said Garrett. “They should be just out of the enemy’s visibility arc to the north.”

  The creation of the stasis field was entirely unexpected and, in Flint’s mind, the early indications were that it would work to his benefit. He breathed deeply and focused, refusing to be thrown by the new variable.

  “Waiting on hellburner reload,” said Maddox.

  “If that primary warship is trapped in the stasis field, we may have a chance against it,” said Fredericks.

  “We still don’t know if the smaller vessel is in trouble,” said Flint. “Being caught in a stasis field is no impediment if you’re immune to attack.”

  Staying low, he banked to bring the Loadout’s undischarged portside clusters on target. At the same time, he kept his eye on the smaller enemy warship to see how it would emerge from the gradually receding hellburner explosions. When he saw pieces of debris falling out of the still-burning plasma fire, Flint experienced shock and joy in equal measures.

  “They’re trailing alloy particles all the way to the ground,” said Becerra. “I didn’t detect them until now. There are other particles as well – rock, maybe, and something else. The readings are strange.”

  When Flint stared, he thought he saw a dark smudge underneath the Kilvar warship, like its outer layers were crumbling and falling away as it rose into the sky. Not only that, the area around the enemy vessel contained a darkness, so faint that Flint wasn’t sure if he was imagining it.

  “What’s that darkness in the stasis field?” he asked. “Is that causing the readings?”

  “I don’t know, sir,” said Becerra. “I’m analysing.”

  “I’m also analysing,” said Lieutenant Fredericks. “It’s similar to…” He halted, as if he didn’t want to say anymore.

  “To what?” asked Flint sharply.

  “A death sphere, sir. The Lavorix created one when they screwed around with superstressed ternium. Maybe this is another.”

  Flint knew history – or some of it, at least. “The death spheres didn’t kill humans,” he said.

  “They didn’t slow down time either, sir. I don’t know what this is, but I’m sure it’ll make you doubly careful to stay outside the perimeter.”

  “Damn right,” said Flint. He imagined RL Moseley clapping his hands together at the excitement of so many potential discoveries. Assuming the man wasn’t dead.

  “Portside hellburner clusters one to three: fired!” said Maddox.

  Another twelve missiles went after the first and again they dropped to a low speed when they were eighty kilometres from their target. Flint diverted his attention between the hellburners and the enemy warship, while he also searched ahead for the ground facility which was just over the horizon.

  Before the Loadout’s hellburners struck home, the smaller enemy ship was engulfed in an explosion of such catastrophic proportions that the sensor feeds darkened automatically. Flint’s eyes narrowed in response and his mouth wanted to fall open at the destruction visited upon this opponent. Before his eyes, the Kilvar warship was torn into several pieces which were hurled slowly away and in different directions by the immense explosive forces.

  “Full broadside from the Langinstol!” said Fredericks.

  The sight of the Kilvar warship’s low-speed destruction was mesmerising and Flint watched a beautiful fan of tiny white sparks eject in a spray from the largest piece of debris, while a million other fiery motes created a chaotic display that was both wondrous and terrifying.

  Tearing his gaze clear, Flint checked on the position of the Langinstol. Its movement on the tactical indicated that the annihilator was fully recovered from its lightspeed transit and it was accelerating across Tibulon, heading directly for the largest enemy warship. The Daklan battleship was a fearsome opponent, but its mass was less than half that of the Kilvar warship. Even combined with the Loadout, they might lack the firepower, especially if the stasis field collapsed.

  “Make Captain Vazox aware of the stasis field if he isn’t already,” said Flint.

  “Already done, sir, and I’ve informed him of the likely perimeter,” said Becerra. “The Langinstol will not come within eighty-five kilometres of the reactor’s original position.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant.”

  Flint took stock. Against the odds, RL Moseley’s scientific hunch had been proven right – although surely not in the manner he imagined - and the ingar-augmented depletion burst had negated the Kilvar defences at the same time as it created the unintended stasis field.

  “There’s a chance the primary enemy warship has more capable defences than that smaller one,” said Maddox. “Let’s hope it’s vulnerable.”

  Flint didn’t answer and his eyes flicked to the hellburner reload timer. It seemed like an age since Maddox had launched the first salvo, when in fact only seconds had passed and the reload wasn’t complete. The starboard and rear clusters were loaded and ready, and had the heavy cruiser been operating with full output, Flint might have tried a rapid nose-tail swap to bring those clusters onto target. With the engines down on power and the Loadout handling like a construction yard shuttle, he didn’t dare take the risk.

  “The primary ship is on the move!” said Becerra. “Climbing vertically from its starting position.”

  Up it came, jagged and primal in shape, yet also with distinct technological cruelty, as if the Kilvar had designed this warship to be as visually intimidating as its weapons were potent. At the same time as the huge enemy warship began climbing, the Loadout’s sensors obtained their first clear view of the depletion burst aftermath.

  The facility’s topside structures were gone and the reaction had created a 160-kilometre basin in the planet’s surface. The sides of the bowl weren’t shallow and they dropped steeply, as if the depletion burst’s expansion hadn’t been much affected by the presence of the stone. The moment Flint saw the basin, he feared the personnel were dead unless the mesh deflector had been proof against the blast. The search would come later.

  It wasn’t a good time for distractions and Flint had to contend with a Kilvar warship that was rising towards the stasis field’s upper perimeter. The hellburners were reloaded and this was the time to use them.

  “Fire!” said Flint.

  “Hellburner forward clusters one to three: fired. Topside clusters one to three: fired. Railers have acquired the target.”

  Again, Flint was confronted by the sight of his warship’s missiles slowing to a crawl in their pursuit of the accelerating Kilvar warship. The Daklan had fired their own second salvo, and the propulsions of fifty or more additional hellburners curved upwards towards the enemy vessel.

  Even locked in the stasis field, the huge wa
rship was fast and it was going to be a close-run thing between escape and hellburner impacts. Flint had another worry – the Kilvar had used their energy weapons to good effect in the first engagement and he had no idea how much the beam would be affected by a stasis field.

  As the thought formed, he banked the Loadout and increased altitude. The warship’s response was sluggish, but it was just enough. A thick beam of crimson stabbed out from the Kilvar warship. Its formation was slowed by the stasis field, but in a split-second it was beyond the perimeter and it raked past the Loadout, connecting with the planet’s surface and creating a six-hundred-metre patch of superheated rock.

  Flint banked again and he heard Lieutenant Becerra urgently passing on news of this attack to the crew on the Langinstol. A second beam appeared before the first had vanished and this one lanced north towards the incoming annihilator. Swearing loudly, Flint hauled on the controls in anticipation of a third beam.

  “Don’t take this as fact, but to the enemy sensors, we probably look as if we’re speeded up a few hundred times,” said Fredericks. “It’s no wonder they can’t land a shot on us.”

  “They haven’t landed a shot on us yet, Lieutenant,” said Flint, putting the Loadout into the steepest climb its engines could handle. The third beam came, skimming past the heavy cruiser’s underside and connecting with the rocky plain a few kilometres south.

  “The enemy warship has deployed a cannister, sir,” said Garrett. “It’s a big one and I don’t know what it contains.”

  “Nothing we want to find out,” said Flint.

  “Hellburner impacts any second,” said Maddox. “Waiting on reload.”

  Before the missiles struck, the cannister – a long grey cylinder - disappeared in a tiny burst of shards which were visible on one of the Loadout’s sensor feeds. The device was clearly a weapon or countermeasures, though whatever function it was intended to perform didn’t happen either because of hardware failure or – far more likely – an interaction with the stasis field.

  The failure was bad news for the Kilvar. First, the Loadout’s hellburners punched into its starboard armour, and a moment later, a larger salvo from the Langinstol struck it portside. Flint continued his evasive manoeuvres while skirting the stasis field perimeter and watching anxiously to find out if the Kilvar vessel had suffered in the plasma explosions which were currently wrapping slowly around its entire midsection.

  “They’re about to break out of the stasis field,” said Becerra.

  Flint saw it too and he held the Loadout in a lumbering climb. The heavy cruiser’s flank and rear hellburners were loaded and ready to go and he turned the warship, bringing those clusters to bear. “Fire the moment they’re out of the field, Commander.”

  “Firing on that condition, sir,” Maddox confirmed.

  The Kilvar warship erupted from the stasis field with the fury of an escaping beast, its hull ablaze and a thick smear of particles trailing behind.

  “Hellburner starboard clusters one to three: fired. Rear clusters one to three: fired. Drones launched, shock pulse deployed. Holding the interceptors.”

  “If the enemy defences come back up once they exit that stasis field, we’re screwed,” said Lieutenant Bolan, telling the others something they’d already guessed.

  Everything happened at once. The Loadout’s railer slugs tore into the plasma shroud covering much of the Kilvar warship’s armour and drones raced from their launch bays, broadcasting crap on every wavelength and glittering like diamond peacocks.

  Energy beams from the Kilvar warship jumped into the darkness, one missing the Loadout by a hair and two others lancing towards the Daklan annihilator. A sensor lock on the Langinstol allowed Flint a sight of its mesh deflector lighting up and then disappearing.

  Back to the enemy vessel went his gaze, in time to see an explosion of ruptured armour on its midsection portside flank, the plating ripped clean and hurled out of the fiercely burning plasma. Flint hadn’t seen much real-life combat, but he knew what a Terrus impact looked like, and the Langinstol had landed a couple of good ones on the Kilvar.

  “Enemy missile launch detected!” said Maddox. “Holy crap, there’s a bunch of them heading our way!”

  “The interceptors!” yelled Flint. “Don’t wait for a damned invitation, Commander!”

  “Interceptors away!”

  The Loadout’s shock bomb went off close by and with a flash so intense that the sensor feeds lit the bridge vividly, producing clear-etched shadows and adding a cold blue-grey hue to everything. With the tactical covered in red and the feeds covered in white, Flint sent the Loadout suddenly lower while turning to present the smallest target – the nose – to the inbound warheads and hoping the short range would be enough to make the Kilvar missiles overshoot.

  Flint’s desperate manoeuvres brought the forward and upper tubes into play, but the proximity of the shock bomb detonation had affected the sensors and the hellburners wouldn’t lock.

  “Damnit!” shouted Maddox. “Lock, you pieces of shit!”

  Through it all, the railer discharge didn’t stop and Flint was left doubting if they were targeting any longer. In his mind, he pictured the Kilvar missiles with their huge payloads heading straight for his warship.

  The shock bomb flash faded rapidly, leaving dancing lights on Flint’s retinas. Less than a half-second later, the Loadout’s mesh deflector activated and once again the surrounding sky was turned bright, this time by the explosions of enemy missiles.

  “Hellburners launched!” shouted Maddox, forgetting to specify the cluster locations in the heat of the engagement.

  The mesh deflector went out and the second was activated a moment later by the Kilvar energy beam. Flint cursed. “Both charges gone.”

  Hoping the deflectors had soaked everything coming the Loadout’s way, Flint changed course, heading instinctively to where he knew the Langinstol would be. From his periphery, he saw a scattering of red dots on the tactical and then two or three missiles exploded on the topside plating and a red line of energy struck closer to the Loadout’s stern.

  Warning lights of intense red and cool amber appeared on Flint’s status screen and the bridge alarm sounded in a background wail that set his teeth on edge. Everything clamoured for his attention and he knew this was the moment when the lives of everyone onboard would be decided by his actions.

  Leaving damage control to Lieutenants Fredericks and Bolan, Flint got a fix on the Kilvar warship. It was climbing rapidly and accelerating east, and it was in a bad way, cloaked in fire and leaving a smudge of particle-blunted heat light as it flew. Loose debris was torn off by the violence of its acceleration and a few billion tons of burning metal and ternium spilled towards Tibulon’s surface. Flint was sure the enemy had seen enough of the engagement, but he couldn’t allow them a final shot at killing him as they escaped.

  His reactions took over. He pulled at the controls while placing the forward engine modules into maximum thrust portside, simultaneously putting the rear modules into full thrust starboard. The Loadout’s entire structure groaned, making Flint wonder how much damage his warship had sustained. With its propulsion howling and the sensor feeds spinning crazily, the heavy cruiser completed the nose-tail swap manoeuvre he’d rejected earlier. It wasn’t perfect, but a final correction on the control bars brought up a lock light on the loaded rear clusters.

  This time, Maddox wasn’t slow.

  “Rear hellburner clusters one to three: launched,” she said, so quickly after the lock light appeared that Flint knew she’d been razor-focused and waiting for it.

  Twelve missiles sped off in pursuit of their target and Flint banked once more to aim the next loaded clusters in the right direction. High above Tibulon, the Kilvar warship’s acceleration had taken it out of the planet’s atmosphere and a combination of high explosives and friction had turned into a fireball.

  They’re going to activate an SRT, thought Flint in anger. They’ll escape and there’s nothing I can do to stop
it.

  Flint was given a demonstration of his enemy’s mentality. Instead of entering lightspeed, the Kilvar dumped a second cannister and took another shot at both the Loadout and the Langinstol with their energy weapon. Flint swore when his warship was struck for a second time. A split-second later, the Langinstol was hit twice in quick succession. At some point, its mesh deflector charges had been spent and both beams connected with the annihilator’s unprotected hull.

  The cannister exploded and this time it produced a startling flash of deep red, which expanded into a sphere a few hundred kilometres in diameter. When the hellburners raced through the sphere and crashed into the enemy warship, their warheads failed to detonate.

  “So damn close!” shouted Maddox, evidently predicting the same outcome as Flint.

  “Fire!” shouted Flint, as soon as he saw the reloading light go out on the topside clusters. It was too late, he was sure.

  It wasn’t Flint’s day to die and it wasn’t the Kilvar’s day to live. The enemy crew failed to consider the result of multiple Terrus impacts on their weakened midsection. Four huge slugs, travelling at sixty thousand kilometres per second, crunched through their armour and tore the huge ship in two at precisely the moment its SRT activated.

  The front section of the Kilvar warship entered lightspeed and the rear section stayed in place. Hellburners smashed into it from two directions and, witnessing the result, Flint was certain the four-thousand-metre part which remained at Tibulon no longer presented a threat.

  “Where’s the rest of it?” he snarled.

  “It entered lightspeed,” said Becerra. “Scanning.”

  “They won’t have got far with half their engine mass gone,” said Fredericks.

  Flint wrestled with the deep wells of anger he didn’t know he possessed and he increased the Loadout’s altitude, his jaw clenched tightly.