The ramp had already been extended, and she peered out across a featureless landscape as the clouds finally loosed their contents and heavy raindrops splattered onto the ground.
When it was less than ten meters away, the bike suddenly materialized with Caleb, Alex and Nika on board.
Marlee grumbled under her breath, “I knew there was room on the bike,” and waved them up the ramp.
She crossed her arms dramatically over her chest and readied to give Caleb an earful about tricking her and leaving her behind. But when Alex collapsed her helmet and climbed off the bike behind him, she shot Marlee a warning look and shook her head minutely.
She took the hint and eased off on her stance, watching Caleb closely as he collapsed his own helmet. Strain seemed to have burned itself permanently into the creases around his mouth and the rigid set of his jaw, and his eyes had darkened to a turbulent indigo. What had happened to him in the compound?
As soon as everyone had disembarked, Caleb secured the bike to the side of the well. “Morgan, we’re all on board. Close the ramp and retreat to a safe distance.”
Wait…Marlee gazed around in confusion. “What about Joaquim?”
Nika dropped her chin to her chest. “He didn’t make it.”
Marlee’s chest panged with a confusing, tempered sorrow that always accompanied the ‘death’ of an immortal. “I’m sorry.”
Caleb touched Nika’s arm as he passed her on the way to the ladder. “If it matters, I think he knew going in that he wasn’t walking out of the compound.”
“Godsdamn asshole of a hero.” Nika’s face was covered in dirt and bloody scratches, and her left arm hung limply by her side, but she pushed past Caleb to scramble one-handed up the ladder ahead of him. “Come on. We need to meet Mesme.”
70
* * *
CAF AURORA
Concord HQ Stellar System
Miriam stood at the overlook of her lovely new flagship. They idled in front of a Caeles Prism wormhole a full kilometer in diameter, waiting for the word to advance. When Nika Kirumase had relayed a three-hour estimate, she’d moved the fleets into position. Then the report had been ‘within the hour’ and now, literally any minute. And Alex was at Nika’s side, risking life and limb to invade the heart of the Rasu’s presence on Namino.
When she’d told her daughter to ‘go to Namino and get the quantum block down,’ she hadn’t meant it quite so literally. But in retrospect, she should have expected no less.
Her eyes surveyed the bridge, where talented officers conducted final checks and ensured the new vessel maintained a state of hyper-readiness in anticipation of battle. Almost forty percent of her original crew had returned, coming out of regenesis ready to fight another day, perhaps with a touch of vengeance in their hearts. Another forty-nine percent had requested a medical leave of absence after being reawakened, for which she absolutely could not blame them. If she were anyone else, she would’ve welcomed taking one herself. But she was Miriam Draner Solovy, and she did not break. As for the rest of the former crew…they’d included ‘no regenesis’ clauses in their wills. Which meant she’d gotten them killed in the first Battle of Namino.
Getting people serving under her killed in pursuit of a higher purpose had been a fact of her life for more than half a century now. One day in the not-too-distant future it might stop being so, once regenesis became more widely accepted, then embraced. In her scant idle moments, she wondered how this was apt to transform the psychology of war. There must be a different path, a better path, than the one the Anadens had taken, but it would be up to humanity to blaze it.
But that was for later, and right now she needed to focus on the upcoming engagement. Having learned her lesson in too tragic a manner, she was not bringing a knife to this gunfight. She had six hundred thousand AEGIS vessels staged at multiple wormholes, not counting fighters or Eidolons, all ready to move on her order and bring thousands of tactical nukes and millions of negative energy weapons to bear on the Rasu. Four hundred Kat superdreadnoughts and their hordes of swarmers—in addition to the hundreds of superdreadnoughts already guarding Dominion worlds—were sworn to show up to this battle.
She’d forbade any Khokteh or Novoloume formations from participating in the mission. They’d suffered too many losses in the first encounter and needed time to rebuild and heal. In something of a surprise, the Machim elassons who had not defected to Ferdinand’s rebellion insisted on sending the ships under their control. She didn’t plan to count on their arrival, but they were certainly welcome to join the party. Commander Palmer was also emphatic about sending every new DAF ship the Asterions had built since the last battle. Seeing as this was his home they intended to reclaim, it was not her place to refuse him.
She was considering a bit of silent fretting over the passing seconds when a direct message arrived from Advisor Kirumase.
The quantum block is down.
Nothing about the state of the Rasu on the ground; nothing about Alex, Caleb, Marlee or the rest of the infiltration team. But battlefield discipline required that she set any concerns aside. It was time to go to war, properly this time.
There was no need for grand motivational speeches today. This battle had become personal, and every soldier knew full well the stakes.
Commandant Solovy (CAF Aurora)(Namino Command Channel): “All ships, proceed to your assigned initial rendezvous points in the Namino stellar system. Once there, execute on TP-Epsilon 4.”
In the hours when he wasn’t tending to her every emotional and psychological need, David had spearheaded the development of a new tactical combat plan designed to take advantage of their strengths and the Rasu’s weaknesses, such as they were. Though untested, it looked brilliant and devious in the simulations. She wished he were here to see it play out, but he correctly asserted the bridge belonged to her alone during hostile engagements. Also, she assumed he was camped out in her office—half to ward against any new surprises from Ferdinand, half to be able to watch the live command feeds as they streamed in.
She’d never fielded a fleet half as large as the one vaulting across five megaparsecs of space now. Of necessity with such a large force, most of the battlefield decisions devolved to the admirals and brigadiers in charge of the battle groups and often to the individual ship captains. This had been AEGIS’ modus operandi since its founding, and the flexibility it provided should work to their advantage today.
‘Executing Caeles Prism traversal.’
“Thank you, Thomas.”
The golden light consumed them for an instant—then they were back in the Namino stellar system, twenty megameters from the planet. Many thousands of Rasu stood between them and their goal, and she had no doubt many more would promptly be en route.
The glut of menacing alien vessels in orbit around the planet was enough to trigger traumatic flashbacks if she possessed any true memory of the prior battle and her death during it. It was probably for the best that she only had Thomas’ recordings of the disaster. Even so, she had to work to suppress a visceral shudder at the sight.
As one—like the hive-type mind they were—every Rasu currently orbiting this hemisphere of the planet turned outward and raced to engage her armada, exactly as she wanted them to.
“Thomas, take us in.”
NAMINO STELLAR SYSTEM
DAF Flight #3
Lieutenant Kiernan Phillips fidgeted in the tiny cockpit of his new fighter. The ship’s main body was half again smaller than his previous one; allegedly, this had something to do with adiamene rendering most of the hull reinforcements and defensive modules unnecessary. But he didn’t care for the way it felt as though the void loomed right outside, like he could lower a window (if he had one), extend his arm and watch it freeze solid and break off at the elbow to float away into the black.
But the engine was faster and more agile and the weapons were more powerful, courtesy of some ceraff or other. Oh, and the hull changed shape on command. So all in all, an improvement on p
rior models.
Commander Palmer (ADV Dauntless II): “All DAF forces, move in, make a nuisance of yourselves, and draw every Rasu target you can away from the planet.”
Kiernan adjusted his harness and accelerated toward the writhing cloud of Rasu. Honestly, he’d never expected to sit in the cockpit of a fighter again. This was all his fault, after all, and Commander Palmer should have demoted him, then dishonorably discharged him, then ordered him to report to a clinic for a comprehensive up-gen. Instead, the man had given him a coveted pilot’s spot in one of only two hundred ten new fighters. A chance for redemption, maybe? He didn’t know about that, but he did know he wanted to shoot a fuckton of Rasu today.
A mini-swarm of smaller Rasu solidified on his radar, and he marked them for the other members of his flight. Two additional fighters appeared on each of his port and starboard, and they spun up in a sixty-degree arc above the Rasu vessels, pivoted and dove in from above, weapons firing in unison on the first target.
The frigate-sized Rasu ruptured near center-mass, sending its constituent pieces shooting off in every direction. They immediately re-targeted the individual pieces, blasting them repeatedly into ever smaller pieces floating ever farther apart. It wasn’t a death blow, but it should keep these Rasu out of the game for a while. Possibly for long enough until it didn’t matter.
His tiny fighter shuddered from the broadside impact of weapons fire from another Rasu. Yet no alarms rang to pierce his ears or flash annoyingly across his HUD. The hull remained in ship-shop shape. I’ll be damned.
He was grinning as he pivoted 180 degrees, in unison with his flight mates, and fired with renewed vigor on the next target.
NAMINO
Plains transitioned to grasslands as the Siyane sped northwest across the continent, giving the cities and their Rasu occupiers a wide berth. They needed to be as far away as possible from the combat engagements for this next phase.
In the cabin, Selene, Grant and Marlee were patching up various bumps and bruises the passengers had suffered when the Siyane evaded Rasu pursuers in the aftermath of the compound’s destruction. Alex had kicked Morgan out of the pilot’s chair promptly upon her arrival, and now Morgan rested against the cockpit half-wall sipping on a beer. Caleb was…Nika hadn’t actually seen him in several minutes.
Her head swam from a dizzying overload of information flowing into the Initiative back on Mirai, and the scene out the viewport blurred away as she focused on the rapidly updating scoreboard at the front of the Initiative. On Dashiel’s anxious but optimistic oversight of planetary defenses. On Perrin’s happy relaying of the growing number of refugees arriving on Mirai soil through Prevo wormholes. On Lance’s—
“We’re approaching the coordinates you gave Mesme.”
Nika jerked back to this reality and pushed her other consciousness to the periphery. “Excellent. How’s the radar look?”
Alex flicked at a screen on her left. “All clear.”
“Go ahead and set down. Mesme says it’ll be here in—”
“—two minutes.” Alex shrugged. “It’s talking to me, too.”
“Of course it is.”
The Siyane settled to the ground, and Alex opened the airlock and extended the ramp. “Morgan, keep the chair warm for me.”
“And here I thought I was off the clock.” The woman traded places with Alex and dropped her beer in the cup holder.
Nika beat Alex down the ramp and jogged into the knee-high grass. No artificial structure stood for two hundred kilometers in any direction. If the device wasn’t safe here, it wouldn’t be safe anywhere.
She peered up at the sky, shielding her eyes against the blazing sun with a hand, for the storm soaking Namino One had evaporated once they left the city behind.
Mesme, where is it?
A moment. I am adjusting the landing location so the Rift Bubble device is not deposited on top of the Siyane . Alex would be displeased.
That’s the truth.
Abruptly, as if materializing wholly out of thin air two hundred meters above her, a sphere plummeted out of the sky. Just when she began to worry it was going to crash, it slowed and settled gently to the ground. The metal casing fell away and the obsidian lattice ignited in pale gold light. The air crackled with ionization, raising the fine hairs on her arms.
Mesme’s undulating lights were faint in the bright sunlight. The Rift Bubble is now active.
“Show me.”
On one of the panes along the front wall of the Initiative, the feed from one of the ships in their tiny reconstituted fleet displayed the snarl of Rasu vessels now engaged by the Concord fleet above Namino. The pilot searched around until it found a Rasu descending toward the surface of the planet. As the haze of the upper atmosphere began to engulf it, the vessel vanished from scans.
“You sent it into the heart of Namino’s sun, yes?”
As is fitting.
No more Rasu would be ravaging Namino, today or any day, and the ones who remained on the surface would soon be eliminated. “I have no words to properly thank you, Mesme.”
None are needed.
“Nevertheless.”
Someone touched her arm, and she spun around to see Alex standing behind her. The woman still looked like she’d just emerged from a war zone, with stray streaks of blood and dirt decorating her face and clothes and her hair spilling wildly out of a low knot.
Nika smiled. “The Rift Bubble is working.”
“Oh, I know. Want to do something cool?”
She chuckled. “I think I’ve earned something cool. Sure.”
“Come with me.” Alex strode off through the high grass toward the lattice. Nika followed, the beginnings of a remarkable lightness filling her chest.
Dashiel leaned in close and stole a quick celebratory kiss.
Mesme swirled ahead of them in some agitation. Alex, I must ask that you—
“Shut it, Mesme. You’ve done well today, but now you’re going to let us have our fun.”
Mesme didn’t argue further, which Nika took for consent.
When they reached the lattice, Alex lifted her left arm and let her fingertips dance along the fringes of the power rippling out from the structure. “Here’s your chance to get a crash course in Kat programming and engineering. Never know when you might need it.”
“How?”
“We stick our hands inside this beautiful ball of energy.”
“We do what?”
“I won’t say it’s safe, exactly, but I’ve done it before. In fact…” Alex smiled a little wistfully “…one could posit that nearly everything humanity has accomplished in the last fifteen years has happened because on Portal Prime, I decided to do the reckless, arguably stupid thing and stick my hand in a lattice exactly like this one. Given the long conflict that awaits us on the other side of today’s battle, it strikes me as a good idea to do it again now, with you.”
“Hells, yes, it does.” Nika flexed her right hand and thrust it into the fire.
71
* * *
NAMINO STELLAR SYSTEM
CAF Aurora
Hi, Mom. The Rift Bubble is operational, so why don’t you send a couple of ships down here to get rid of the vermin on the surface? Oh, and we’re all fine.
If anyone on the bridge happened to be glancing her way when the pulse arrived, Miriam would not have been able to disguise the rush of relief that briefly brightened her expression and softened her stance.
Good to know on all counts. Well done.
Commandant Solovy (CAF Aurora)(Namino Command Channel): “Fleet Admiral Bastian, you are authorized to begin Phase 2 operations on the Namino surface.”
Fleet Admiral Bastian (AFS Leonidas)(Namino Command Channel): “Acknowledged. Battle Group #2, with me.”
On the tactical map, twenty thousand ships broke off from the battle and adopted a trajectory that would quickly take them into Namino’s atmosphere. They each broadcast a special signal to enable them to pass through the Rift Bubbl
e barrier and reach the planet’s surface. Any Rasu who chased after them were going to experience a very different fate.
On the opposite side of the planet, Kat superdreadnoughts had arrived as promised to engage the Rasu forces, and for now Miriam left them to do so however they best saw fit.
Splashes of light flared outside the viewport as three Rasu leviathans fired mercilessly upon the Aurora. She was accustomed to her vessel withstanding blistering fire without damage, but with the Imperium double-shielding active, the fire never even reached the hull to create so much as a minor, fleeting vibration.
She’d consciously readopted her ship’s prior role as a ‘damage sponge that shoots back,’ almost as if to dare her still-shaky psyche to crack under the pressure. Trial by fire.
Her pulse beat a trifle too rapidly, and a few beads of sweat tickled the skin beneath her uniform collar, but so far she was weathering the storm.
‘Commandant, the AFS Trinidad and the MF Epsilon-16Bravo are being targeted for potential intrusion by Rasu vessels.’
A shiver ran unbidden up her spine. “They know what to do…but let me see the feeds.”
Two new screens manifested to her left on the overlook. They showed an AEGIS cruiser and a Machim battlecruiser fleeing at top speeds from pursuing Rasu leviathans—and from the vicinity of the planet below.
Even with late-breaking power allocation and programming enhancements that increased its propulsion by 12%, the AEGIS cruiser could not outrun the leviathan, while the Machim warship managed to match the leviathans’ speed but not outpace it.
Which was fine.
When the ships crossed a pre-determined threshold distance, they each unloaded eight heavy negative energy missiles into their pursuers. Then, before the missiles impacted their too-close targets, the ships used their superluminal drives to jump a safe distance away. The leviathans were vaporized, the Rasu that comprised them reduced to a scattering of subatomic fundamental particles.
Inversion (Riven Worlds Book Two) Page 41