Ruins of the Galaxy Box Set: Books 1-6

by Chaney, J. N.

  Kane batted the words away with a hand. “You will refer to me as Moldark.”

  “Moldark?” Ricio caught himself. “Forgive me, sir. I mean, yes, Admiral Moldark.”

  “Not Admiral,” Brighton said. He looked to his counterpart, then added, “Lord. Lord Moldark.”

  The scarred man nodded, as if in favor of the term, like the two of them were trying it out for the first time and agreeing upon its use. Ricio had the strange feeling that he was witnessing the evolution of something new. And something very dangerous. Normally, he would have spoken out against what he felt was bad leadership. After all, he’d made a reputation for himself by telling dimwitted COs where they could shove their ignorance. But something in his gut told him to hold his tongue. At least for now.

  “Lord Moldark,” Ricio said. His skin prickled as he said the words. Such a naming convention was definitely not standard Navy protocol. He clamped down his objections and dared to stare at the man in the center of his black eyes. “You’re saying we will find this ship after passing through a quantum tunnel?”

  “You will. Our source’s sensors sent visual confirmation before being destroyed.”

  “Destroyed? As in, this force is hostile?”

  “Quite so,” Brighton said. “Use caution upon entering the system.”

  “And this tunnel, it’s safe to enter?”

  Brighton nodded. “It is. Your squadron and the battlecruiser Defiant Shepard will pass through the coordinates and proceed to the planet designated in the mission brief. Your orders are to eliminate the enemy starship and all hostiles in the area.”

  “But this quantum tunnel…”

  “The tunnel is inconsequential, commander,” Moldark said. “The starship and its crew are all you need concern yourself with.”

  “Understood.” Ricio stood a little straighter. “If you don’t mind, who are we taking out? More Jujari?”

  Brighton shook his head. “Some Jujari, yes. Some humans as well. All are complicit in this rebellion and must be stopped. Once the starship is eliminated, scan the planet for signs of life. Unless they have Repub idents, eliminate them.”

  “Seems clear enough to me.” Ricio still had questions though. Normally, in any standard mission briefing, he wouldn’t leave the room until he had all the information he wanted. But here, with these two men, both of whom far outranked him, he wasn’t sure what protocol was. In any other context, they wouldn’t even acknowledge his presence. So he wasn’t sure how far to press them in order to satisfy his curiosity. “If I may, where does this quantum tunnel lead exactly?”

  Brighton looked to Moldark. The elder man gave a cryptic shake of his head. Brighton looked back at Ricio and said, “To another part of the quadrant. We believe the Jujari are using it as a new base of operations should Oorajee fall.”

  “So this is a preventative measure,” Ricio said.

  “Precisely.”

  “Begging your pardon, but wouldn’t this be more fitting for a Recon team? Why me?”

  “Because, Commander Longo,” Brighton said, showing the first signs of irritation with tight lips and a deep sigh, “you are the most decorated veteran pilot still alive on the Labyrinth. That, and we already sent a Recon team. You’re going in to finish what they couldn’t.”

  “I see,” was all Ricio could think to say. This did not bode well. He imagined the enemy force to be substantial and, without even knowing this enemy vessel’s capabilities, wondered if they might need something larger than a battlecruiser to assist them.

  “Search for the Recon unit and retrieve them if you can,” Brighton continued. “Then get back here.”

  “Do not fail us, commander,” Moldark added. “We are looking for you to be thorough. Execute your orders with extreme prejudice. There must be no survivors.”

  “Understood…” Ricio hesitated. “Lord Moldark.”

  The former admiral smiled, the ends of his lips curling up so high his black eyes turned to slits. The man’s face resembled something almost reptilian. Ricio even caught a glimpse of the man’s teeth, which seemed to look more like sharp fangs than anything human. What in all the cosmos was going on with him?

  “You are dismissed.”

  Back inside his cockpit, Ricio rode in silence with his thoughts. They’d accompanied the Defiant Shepard through the quantum tunnel—an experience he hoped not to repeat more than for the return trip—and now found themselves bearing down on the ship that Brighton and Moldark had shown him. It was unlike anything he’d ever seen before, resembling something more akin to a marine animal than a starship. It was both elegant and otherworldly.

  “I’m not getting a data match,” Viper Three said. “Unless I’m the only one experiencing a system error.”

  “You’re reading it right. I don’t think this one is in our database yet,” Ricio replied.

  “Sir?” Viper Two asked.

  “Command suspects it’s a new Jujari vessel, and that we’re coming up on a fallback outpost on that planet.”

  “About that…” Viper Three spoke up again. “I’m also not getting a lock on our position, commander. Star navigation is offline.”

  “What?” Ricio brought up his navigation menu. But he was getting the same error. “This can’t be right.”

  Every ship in the Republic Navy used an advanced star chart quadra-positioning system that located a ship based on its orientation to all the known stars in any of the Republic’s main quadrants. It was even feasible to fix a position well beyond known space based upon adequate sightlines to the database of known stars, but no one Ricio knew had ever been out far enough to test its limitations. The system was—for lack of a better term—blasterproof.

  “Viper Two,” Ricio said, “are you reading the same error?”

  “Affirmative, sir.”

  Ricio wondered if maybe the jump through the quantum tunnel had disrupted their sensors. He opened a channel to the Defiant Shepard.

  “Go ahead, Viper Lead,” said the communications officer. Ricio’s callsign had been changed from Viper One to Viper Lead in order to designate him as the mission commander.

  “Taurus One, can you please confirm our nav position and relay the necessary data? We’re having trouble securing a lock.”

  “Standby, Viper Lead.”

  There was a long pause. With every second that ticked by, Ricio began to feel his anxiety level rise—and he didn’t get anxious. Which was why he knew this was bad.

  “Viper Lead, our navigation sensors are currently offline. We will update you once we’ve established a positive star fix.”

  “Copy that, Taurus One. Viper Lead out.”

  Ricio let his head rest against his seat back. This wasn’t good. The nav system had never failed like this.

  “Sir?” Viper Two asked.

  “Go ahead.”

  “Where are we?”

  Ricio shook his head for no one in particular. “I don’t know.” He took a deep breath, then looked at the starship in his HUD. “But we have a job to do. Then I want us the hell out of here.”

  “Roger.”

  “All Talons, prepare to engage the enemy starship. I’m marking it as Tango One on your map. Viper Two through Ten, identify weapons and drive systems and prepare to engage. Viper Eleven through Fourteen, cover formation and identify any inbound ships from the planet. I’m marking the planet as Tango Two. Once the starship is eliminated, all ships scan the surface for threats. Confirm mission objectives.”

  A series of green icons lit up the side of Ricio’s visor. He then hailed the battlecruiser. “Taurus One, ready main blaster canons and torpedoes. Prepare to fire.”

  There was a moment’s silence. Ricio watched for the data packet delivery icon to display.

  “Targets confirmed, Viper Lead. Standing by.”

  Ricio could feel his heart rate increase in anticipation of the conflict. The enemy vessel was aware of their presence by now—they’d probably detected them the moment they jumped into the system. But,
strangely, the ship had yet to deploy any fighters. In fact, the vessel didn’t even have shields raised.

  “Tauraus One,” Ricio said, “are we close enough for you to conduct a life signs scan on that ship?”

  Another pause. “Adequate sensor range in sixty seconds, Viper Lead,” replied the comms officer.

  “Good. Forward me the results.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  Ricio stared at his HUD. He knew that Brighton and Moldark had said this was a Jujari and human force. But this ship was… well, it was unlike any he’d ever seen. Meaning, it looked like something beyond Jujari or Repub capabilities. A squadron of talons and a battlecruiser all for one ship? Granted, the thing certainly looked big—but wasn’t this overkill?

  Ricio checked the time and distance to target. They were within visual range now, and he moved the holo image aside. The starship was impressive, shimmering in the purple star’s light. “Taurus One?” he asked, growing impatient.

  “Scan initiated, Viper Lead. Stand by.”

  Ricio tapped his fingers on his control stick, then looked at the printed picture of his wife and son that he brought on every mission. He figured the Navy would give him as much leave as he wanted after this crazy mission. Then again, they had just begun a war with the Jujari. “Eh, who are you kidding?” Ricio said to himself. Then he kissed his fingertips and touched the image.

  “Scan complete,” the comms officer said. “Data uploaded.”

  Ricio snapped away from the picture and brought up the sensor menu. “Taurus One, are you sure this accurate?”

  “Affirmative, Viper Lead. All sensors are green.”

  “But”—Ricio triple-checked what he was seeing—“that’s not possible.” According to the scans, the entire ship was being crewed by only three organic lifeforms. There was no way a vessel of that size could be run by so few.

  Ricio suddenly wondered where the Recon team had vanished to. Had a force of only three people actually taken out whatever Repub Marine force had been sent earlier?

  “I want a scan of that planet as soon as you’re close enough,” Ricio said to the comms officer. “Since the ship seems to be in geosynchronous orbit, start with the terrain directly below it and move outward concentrically. Notify me as soon as you’ve finished.”

  “Understood, Viper Lead.”

  Ricio opened the all-ship channel. “This is Viper Lead to all ships, commence attack run. I repeat, commence attack run.”

  4

  Ricio locked his targeting reticle on what resembled engine cones, then fired two of his four Class-C torpedoes. As the twin projectiles ripped across the black expanse, Ricio double checked his sensor readout. The enemy ship still had not raised shields. Either this was going to be the easiest takedown he’d ever participated in or the enemy had a serious surprise up its sleeve.

  “Thirty seconds to impact,” Viper Two called out, noting all torpedoes’ collective time to targets. Each Talon had fired on areas of the vessel that the pilot deemed strategic. “Viper Lead, I’m still not seeing shields.”

  “Neither am I,” Ricio replied. He flew perpendicular to the ship, headed toward its stern. The unnamed planet loomed in the background. He watched the orange glow of nearly thirty torpedoes as they sped toward their targets.

  “Ten seconds,” Viper Two said.

  Ricio held his breath.

  Suddenly, all the torpedoes deviated from their flight paths.

  “What the hell?” Ricio exclaimed, his eyes trying to make sense of the chaos unfolding before him. At first, the missiles acted erratically, as if something had disrupted their targeting systems. They careened away from the enemy ship, shooting out in all directions. Ricio wondered if the vessel had employed some sort of disruption field undetectable by their sensors. But he threw out that notion the moment each pair of torpedoes came about and started heading back toward the Talons that launched them.

  “Viper Squadron, evasive maneuvers,” Ricio yelled. His ship’s AI wasn’t even alerting him to the missile lock even though he could clearly see his two torpedoes speeding toward his fuselage. He rolled his Talon to port and deployed countermeasures. The first torpedo raced past him, thrown off by his electromagnetic defenses. The fine burst of charged particles momentarily threw off its guidance system. The second, however, mistook the debris field for an enemy target and detonated.

  The expanding wave of energy buffeted Ricio’s shield but did little to diminish its integrity. His sensors were still reading the first torpedo as his own ordinance even though it was circling back to find him. He rolled to starboard just as the missile flew through his wake.

  “Bogie on my six,” Viper Four said, her voice frantic.

  “Same,” said Viper Eight. “I can’t shake it.”

  “What’s going on with them, Lead?” Viper Two asked.

  But Ricio was as clueless as they were. He was about to say as much when Viper Six screamed over comms. The cry was cut short, however, when Ricio saw a bright orange flash off his starboard side. By the time he was able to focus on it, the explosion was gone, and all that remained was an ever-widening debris field.

  “Viper Six down,” Viper Two said. Then, to Ricio’s shock, Viper Two also yelled over comms as his icon vanished from the nav map.

  “No…” Ricio seethed. He fought against the rising panic as he watched more of his squadron fall to their own torpedoes. For the third time, Ricio rolled away from his missile, narrowly avoiding it. He attempted to target it with his T-100 blasters in each wingtip, but his weapons systems refused to lock on something it didn’t deem an enemy weapon. He entered the override command and aimed manually. The shot was next to impossible. Still, he had to try. He squeezed the trigger and watched the blaster fire streak across the void. But the torpedo steered to evade the shot.

  “But that’s… that’s impossible,” Ricio said to himself. Then, over comms, he yelled, “Taurus One, SITREP.”

  “Taking heavy fire,” the comms officer said. His voice was strained, accentuated by the sound of a klaxon in the background. “Our torpedoes are… they’ve returned to us. Our defense turrets are unable to take them out.”

  Ricio glanced at the battlecruiser’s representation on the map to see several dozen torpedoes blanking out as they collided with the icon. He spun his Talon around so he could see the missiles exploding along the Defiant’s hull. Bright flashes of light popped, then disappeared as the combustible materials vaporized, consumed by fire and then by the void. All the while, defense turrets sent blistering sprays of blaster fire into the void in a failed attempt to stop the missiles.

  Ricio looked back at the enemy vessel in muted horror. In less than a minute, the starship had wiped out half his squadron without firing a single shot. And the damn shields aren’t even raised yet.

  He looked back at his HUD and saw his torpedo circling back for a fourth time. Mystics. Several more projectiles circled around the remaining Talons, closing for the kill. Was this really how he was going out? Blown apart by his own torpedo?

  Ricio yanked back on the flight controls, pitching his fighter up and away from the torpedo. The weapon had to be running low on fuel by now.

  “I’m not gonna make it!” Viper Twelve said. “I’m not gonna—”

  In the space of the next ten seconds, five more fighter pilots lost their lives. Ricio yelled in defiance, his throat tight with frustration. This couldn’t be happening.

  “Viper Lead,” said the comms officer, “we’re detecting several life signs on the planet’s surface.”

  “Copy that,” Ricio said, noting the new icons on his HUD. “But right now—splick!”

  A second torpedo joined the first one in tracking Ricio. The missile swept in from below and detonated close enough to diminish his shields by seventy percent. But it wasn’t the energy blast that concerned Ricio—it was the shrapnel. A metal shard ripped through his starboard engine, jarring his Talon enough to cause Ricio’s jaw to slam shut. He cursed, then redirect
ed power to the port engine. His first torpedo was coming in fast.

  “Making a run for the planet,” Ricio announced. If he couldn’t assault the ship, maybe he’d get lucky and take out some of the ground forces. He figured his torpedo was running out of fuel and might explode during atmospheric entry. “All remaining Vipers, on me. Taurus One, fall back. Fire all blasters on Tango One.”

  Ricio got confirmation pings from only five Talons. Five. As for Taurus One, the comms officer complied with his orders and began firing on the enemy ship with its NR550 blaster cannons. Ricio went wide of the starship but noted that the Defiant’s blaster fire was exploding against a massive purple shield. The alien vessel had finally decided to deploy its defenses, or… maybe they’d been up the whole time and we just couldn’t detect them.

  Ricio didn’t like this. He wondered if he should have been more apprehensive about accepting the mission when he first heard a Recon team had been eliminated.

  With throttle at full, Ricio sped toward the planet, aware that all the unexpended torpedoes were now trailing the five remaining Talons as they—

  Four remaining Talons.

  “Son of a bitch,” Ricio yelled. He watched his speed indicator increase as the planet’s gravity well took hold of his ship. Talons were built for high heat, high abrasion. And if he kept the deflection angle low enough, he might be able to keep his speed up while still achieving adequate descent. But this was fast, even for his risk-taking standards.

  “Viper Lead,” said Viper Three. Ricio’s ship was starting to shake as flames covered the windows in mad torrents of orange light. “Advise significant speed reduction.”

  “Negative, Viper Three.” Ricio’s teeth chattered and his helmet knocked violently against his headrest. He could hardly focus on his HUD. Still, he willed his eyes to focus on the torpedoes trailing the remains of his squadron.

  “But, commander—”

  “Look!” Ricio watched as two torpedoes vanished from the combat map. A beat later, a third one disappeared. “We’re shaking them.”

  “Agreed, commander. However, my sensors—”