Shadow Stars (Universe on Fire Book 2)

by Ivan Kal

  “Notify all ships: I want all of our fighters in space right now. Execute attack plan beta,” Aiko ordered. It was the more conservative of their plans, but Aiko wasn’t about to go mad and risk losing Earth’s last hope.

  Jones relayed her orders to the other ships, and Aiko watched as the space in front of her formation filled with fighters. Twenty-two hundred fighters were out in space, looking almost like a swarm. Her ships started changing directions, moving away from the Val’ayash and keeping the distance between them. Aiko was not going to let them get close enough for their weapons to hammer at her ships. The human ships’ advantage were their fighters.

  Without any more orders from her, the fighter squadrons began their attack runs.

  ***

  Commander Wang Shu Jiang felt her new fighter thrum beneath her as the launching mechanism threw her fighter out of the large tubular hole at the front of the Fury. As one of the most experienced fighter pilots in the Fleet, she had been transferred and given command of the Fury’s fighter squadrons, something which had felt just a tad bit overwhelming to her. The Fury had one hundred squadrons with twenty fighters each. And then there were the new types of fighters—she had been given a Wraith, a strike craft, but there were also the Eagles. The two were much like the Havocs, but also not. They were more specialized, built to fulfill a certain purpose.

  The Havocs were versatile, able to adapt to any situation, but there was something to be said for a fighter built for a specific purpose.

  “All right. All squadrons, you know the plan. Everest, Chimborazo, Prometheus and Fury squadrons one through eighty are with me; squadrons eighty-one through one hundred are with the fleet. Let’s go,” Jiang said and bottomed the thrusters. The Wraith surged forward faster than her Havoc ever could’ve, and the rest of the formation, some eighteen hundred fighters, followed close behind her. About six hundred and eighty of her fighters were Wraiths, fast and light strike crafts, designed to get in quick and then get out. The rest were the Eagles, loaded with the newest and the deadliest missiles that Senka had built, bombers to hammer at the enemy.

  As the fighter squadrons neared the Val’ayash ships, Jiang noticed them settle into a wall formation with the battleships at the center, most likely so that they could provide point defense for the other ships.

  “All Wraith squadrons, execute pincer maneuver,” Jiang ordered.

  Suddenly every Wraith fighter surged forward ahead of the formation, leaving the Eagles behind. Then, as they neared the enemy, they split into two groups and flew away to opposite sides. The Val’ayash opened fire with their main weapons, but the fighters were still too far away at almost 400,000 kilometers. The Wraiths took a curving course, the two groups coming in at the sides of the Val’ayash formation, while the Eagles flew directly forward. The Eagles slowed down somewhat, to allow the Wraiths to arrive first.

  As her fighters neared the enemy ships, and their weapons fire increased as more of their weapon systems came into range, she started losing fighters. Jiang grimaced, but she knew that it would happen, especially since there were so many targets to choose from. It didn’t help that the Val’ayash had clearly done the smart thing and studied fighter tactics to come up with a solution for them. They were firing their main weapons even though they weren’t as effective, as they knew how dangerous the fighters could be.

  When they reached 50,000 kilometers from their targets, Jiang ordered them to fire the single salvo of the new long-range fighter missiles. Two walls of fire left the Wraiths, each heading straight for the Val’ayash cruisers, which were at the edges of their formation. The Val’ayash point defense opened fire at 40,000 kilometers, far ahead of what even the Qash’vo’tar were capable of, and her missiles started to die. As her fighters reached 30,000 kilometers, she opened her comms.

  “All Wraiths, execute max jump and attack on my mark,” Jiang said, and then she pushed the slider for a blink forward 10,000 kilometers. “Now!”

  She blinked her fighter forward, arriving just behind the missiles, which the Val’ayash point defense seemed to be taking down with ease, and she fired the rest of her load. Ten striker missiles left her fighter and surged forward, and she opened fire with her lasers, hitting a battlecruiser’s shield.

  As she neared 10,0000 kilometers from the enemy ship, she spoke again. “All Wraiths, escape blinks now!”

  She pulled her blink range back down to 5k to conserve power and executed a roll, changing direction and pointing herself beyond the cruiser, and then double blinked forward, coming out behind the Val’ayash formation and escaping their defensive fire. She looked at her board, seeing the casualties, but she put that out of her mind and watched as many of her fighters missiles passed through the Val’ayash defensive fire, but not nearly as many as she had expected. They exploded against their shields, and she saw one battlecruiser’s shield falter in one section and two missiles passing through to hit the hull, but there was no serious damage.

  Jiang grimaced. They had known that without ships to help take down the shields, they wouldn’t be as effective. She continued watching as the Eagles’ missiles came in hot. They had fired them just as the Wraiths had executed their assault blinks, and now she watched as far more missiles came directly at the Val’ayash formation. The battleships’ point defense was taking down a lot of missiles, but then the missiles closed down to the last few thousand kilometers. Plasma missiles ignited their spellscripts and disappeared as flashes of bright plasma shot forward from their tips, splashing against the shields and turning them orange. A few striker missiles exploded against the shields, but then sudden explosions rocked the shields seemingly out of nowhere.

  The shadow missiles closed the range unnoticed and struck, and Jian saw one of the battlecruiser’s shields collapse and several plasma missiles splash against its hull, followed by a series of striker missiles. The battlecruiser buckled under the onslaught and its entire front section fell apart, causing the rest of the ship to lose power.

  Two of the battleships lost their shields as they surged forward to protect their smaller comrades. Missiles hit them as well, but didn’t do as much damage. Jiang saw one of the battleships venting atmosphere for just a moment, but then it stopped and it continued forward as if nothing had happened, except that it was sporting a small hole in its side.

  “All craft, get back to your ships for resupply,” Jiang ordered.

  The Val’ayash ships were much tougher than she had though they would be, but they still had a lot of missiles to throw at them.

  ***

  Aiko watched as her squadrons executed a successful assault on the enemy formation, updates showing on her screen. As one of the Val’ayash battlecruisers was taken out, her crew cheered, but Aiko didn’t join in. The reports on her screens were not as great as she had expected. They had lost fighters—fifty-seven fighters had been taken down, most of them Wraiths, from the enemy point defense as they had closed the distance. But there were a few Eagles that had been taken out as well, from the Val’ayash’s long-ranged weapons.

  In a single action, Aiko had lost more fighters than she had commanded five days ago.

  “Their point defense is better than what the data of the battle indicated,” Ethan said, then tapped at his screens furiously. After a few more taps, he stopped and turned to look at Aiko. “Twenty-five percent better.”

  Aiko frowned. “They couldn’t have improved their point defense that much in such a short period of time.”

  Ethan look unconvinced. “We have no idea what kind of software they have, or how good their people are. Regardless, the numbers speak for themselves: they have improved their point defense specifically to counter fighter tactics.”

  Aiko cursed. It was just one more thing to worry about. The Val’ayash were still coming for them, and Aiko watched as they took shots at the retreating fighters with their beam weapons. They were at extreme range, but they still managed to hit a few. She could see that the Val’ayash were gaining on her formation
, constantly closing the range between them as their faster ships surged forward. Her formation’s movements were only a delaying action—eventually they would be in range of them.

  “At this rate, how long until they are in range of our new missiles?” Aiko asked.

  “Three minutes,” Jones reported.

  “And how long until our fighters are on board?”

  “Five,” Jones answered.

  Aiko looked at the holo for a moment and then came to a decision. “Alter our course so that we will get to our fighters sooner. Charge all weapons, load missiles.”

  It was time to see what the Fury could really do.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “Keep evading, we’re almost there!” Jiang said over her comms as the Val’ayash ships continued firing at her retreating fighters. Their beams had truly insane ranges—they were over 350,000 kilometers away from them, and still they managed to hit her fighters. The beams weren’t at full power at this distance, but it didn’t matter much for the fighters, as they didn’t have any defenses capable of surviving the beams at any range. But they wouldn’t have to evade that fire for long. They were getting closer to the carriers, especially since they had altered course to let the fighters reach them sooner.

  The Val’ayash formation was pushing hard to close the range. They knew that the fighters were a threat and that they would have the advantage in a straight-up fight. But soon enough they exited their effective range, and the fighters continued on toward their ships without trouble. As Jiang finally reached the Fury, she moved her ship into the massive tube at the front of the ship and slid inside. She flew past the launch tubes which were placed all around the inside of the tube and headed to the landing bays. The landing bays were strange; this would be only her second landing in such a bay, as she had only one chance to try it before they were headed to Sol.

  She cut her thrusters and flew past an area marked by a green light with her momentum. As soon as she did so, she felt a strange sensation come over her as she was caught in the magi-tech system. A slowing spell robbed her fighter and everything inside of its momentum, slowing the fighter down astonishingly quickly. It also made her feel trapped as her body ultimately was frozen in place along with the fighter. A few moments later, however, the spell shut off and the fighter slowly floated to the ground as artificial gravity gradually took its hold over it. Jiang shook herself and then shut off her fighter as mechanized arms took her fighter and pulled it out of the landing bay to the track deeper inside.

  Machines started loading her fighter and the many fighters in front of her and behind again, as crew worked beneath them to replace the power cells fueling the ships. She waited patiently, reading through the link she had to the ship and speaking with flight control.

  A few minutes later, her fighter was loaded into a launch tube and ready to get back to the fight.

  ***

  Aiko watched as her fighters returned to their carriers to be resupplied, while on the holo the Val’ayash forces came straight on. Her formation was on a curved course slowing their gaining speed significantly, but she knew that she couldn’t delay much longer, as her ships were slower—especially the Fury.

  “They will be in range of our new missiles in less than a minute,” Jones reported.

  Aiko looked at the holo, trying to decide if revealing the new missiles’ capabilities was a smart thing to do. She glanced at the young man standing next to her. Ethan D-001 had spent the entire engagement simply watching, looking at data on his screens and providing input only when asked. She knew that he and his siblings were supposed to be greater than any ordinary human ever could be, but she wondered why he hadn’t done anything, even suggested some masterstroke of a tactic. The few times she had had the chance to speak with him she knew that he was intelligent—brilliant, even. So why not involve himself?

  She was somehow certain that it wasn’t because he couldn’t do better than her. She could see something in his eyes: he was watching, studying, and weighing. To her eyes it looked like he was not here to interfere, but to judge, and that scared her.

  “Load a single salvo of new missiles, and order the Everest and Chimborazo to do the same,” Aiko ordered. Sadly the Prometheus didn’t have the new missiles, as they hadn’t had enough of them made as yet. Even the other carrier had only two salvos’ worth. But they were powerful missiles, and a single salvo from the Fury would be far more powerful than ones from all the other carriers put together.

  “We are in range Commodore,” Jones said.

  “Fire,” Aiko said.

  A soft thrum announced the missiles’ launches, and Aiko kept her eyes on the holo as the space in front of her ship filled with new signatures. The Fury’s launch tubes were placed all over the cylinder, making the launches look amazing. For a moment, the ship looked like it was on fire. After the missiles were ejected, their drives fired and their targeting systems kicked in before they reoriented and flew away toward their target. Using the links between the ships, the missiles from all three ships adjusted their thrusters and settled into a single formation of three spherical walls of missiles.

  Aiko wondered what the Val’ayash were thinking right then. She had just fired a thousand missiles from over 600,000 kilometers away, double the range of her conventional missiles. The Qash’vo’tar maximum was around 350,000 kilometers, and Aiko wondered how great the Val’ayash’s range was. They had some advanced tech, but she knew that there had to be a limit to what they could achieve with just tech.

  But as her missiles started to really burn toward the Val’ayash, she saw them launch missiles of their own.

  “Battleships launching missiles!” an officer yelled out.

  Aiko hadn’t really thought that they could have such a great range, but the Val’ayash had fired from over 500,000 kilometers. As their missiles reoriented and started on their way toward her ships, Aiko frowned; only the Val’ayash battleships had fired, and only fifty missiles each. Compared to her one thousand missiles, their fifty looked laughable. But she knew better than to underestimate them.

  “Prepare the d-wave,” Aiko said slowly. She hadn’t had much chance to study the Fury’s defensive weapon, but she knew that it worked. And she knew that she couldn’t let the other ships in her formation take any Val’ayash attack. They just couldn’t survive any significant weapons fire. But the Fury with its thick kotarium hull could. “Pull us in front of the formation, tell the other ships to get behind us—”

  Before Aiko could finish, the enemy missiles disappeared. For a moment she thought that they must be stealth missiles, but one of her officers yelled out, “The missiles just went FTL!”

  “Evasive maneuvers!” Aiko yelled out, as she realized how much energy even one of those missiles hitting her ship could transfer. She looked at the holo, knowing that they couldn’t survive even one hit.

  “Missiles reappeared!”

  Aiko frowned, surprised, but she didn’t have the time to wonder what that meant. She didn’t even have time to give out orders. Fifty missiles surged toward the Fury, while the other fifty flew around her ship, targeting the other carriers. The missiles hammered her ship, the lights dimming as they exploded against the hull.

  “Hull breaches on decks 15,17,23,24, our drives are damaged!”

  Aiko looked at the damage reports as they came in, surprised at the totals. She had expected far worse, but the Fury’s kotarium armor was thick. It might not be made out of the special alloys as those of the Qash’vo’tar, Zhal, and the Val’ayash were, but it had mass. While the Val’ayash missiles were powerful, each holding at least five times more destructive power than a conventional human missile, they had survived. She looked at the reports coming in from the other ships and released a sigh of relief.

  The other ships had a few more moments available to them to act, and as their ships had laser point defenses they had managed to take down most of the missiles. The Chimborazo took a hit from four and had lost one of its laser turrets as well a
s a quarter of its fighter launch tubes. The Everest got hit by two and got off with only light damage. The Prometheus had been at the back of the formation, and it had the most time to take down the missiles, so none managed to get through. The other ships were hit by only a fraction of missiles that the Fury had taken, but still their damage was worse. Aiko needed those ships, and even though she had been tempted to put them in front of the Fury to use their point defenses as protection, she knew that she couldn’t. Once they got in the range of Val’ayash other weapons they would not survive for more than minutes at most.

  Aiko looked at the holo and wondered why the Val’ayash had wasted their weapon; they had to have known that their salvos were far too small to take down her fleet—unless they had thought that their point defense was far worse than it was. She watched the holo as her missiles crossed the halfway point to the Val’ayash ships, and their second stage ignited. The missiles fired their auxiliary drives, suddenly changing positions in what seemed to be random direction, and then their main drives shut off and their spellscripts activated. A moment later, the missiles disappeared from the Fury’s scanners as they entered stealth and continued forward, coasting cold.

  The Val’ayash reacted by spreading their formation, and Aiko saw them position their ships so that they would better cover one another.

  “Fighters are resupplied and ready for launch, Commodore,” Jones reported.

  “Launch them,” Aiko said.

  As the fighters flew out of her carriers, she turned to look at the data and the Val’ayash FTL missiles. She couldn’t figure out why they had dropped out of FTL before hitting.

  “It was because they couldn’t hit while in FTL,” a voice told her.

  Aiko turned around to find Ethan D-001 watching her. “What do you mean?”