by James Rosone
The Zodark ships were incredibly tough to kill with a direct-energy weapon because of their use of an organic material that absorbed and dispersed the high energy of a laser. This armor technology had allowed them to dominate space warfare for hundreds of years, maybe even longer. However, when the humans had shown up using almost exclusively magrails, the effects of this weapon had been felt immediately.
Despite using what other races deemed an old, outdated technology, the human ships were pulverizing their more technologically sophisticated adversaries. The Earthers just didn’t have the quantity of ships or trained crews to throw into these major battles like their allies; they hadn’t been a part of this war long enough to have fully retooled their shipyards to meet the increased demand for ships, or to get their economy on a solid wartime footing. It would take them close to a full decade to be a true, fully capable member of the Galactic Empire.
“Captain McKee, the enemy ships that could warp away are warping in the direction of Rass. Shall I set a course to pursue them?” asked her helmsman.
“Coms, patch me through to Admiral Stavanger. I need to speak with him immediately,” McKee directed.
It took a moment to get a response from the Primord ship. Then an image of Admiral Stavanger appeared on their main computer screens. “Captain McKee, please pass along my compliments to your ships for their incredible fighting. My ships will take one of your hours to recover our life pods and give our people some needed time to get our ships repaired. Would your fleet like to lead the assault on the planet?”
McKee thought about that for a moment; it was a great honor and opportunity that he was offering her. “My fleet can do that, Admiral. However, we need to make sure we leave some ships to maintain control of the gate. We’re about to have hundreds of transports transit through the gate.”
Admiral Stavanger nodded. “If you agree, I recommend we leave one of your battleships and two of my own: maybe four of your cruisers and ten frigates. I’ll leave the same contingent. This ought to give us enough ships should the Zodarks opt to send another force here.”
McKee liked the idea. “This sounds like a solid plan, Admiral,” she said with a smile. “Let’s detail off the ships. We need to secure the planet and capture those stations and other orbital platforms. I will give the order for my ground forces to initiate their part of the plan.”
When the two had ended their transmission, McKee ordered her coms officer to send a communications drone back through the stargate, telling the assault force to begin their part of the operation. Once the joint fleet arrived around Rass, the real battle would start.
*******
RNS Midway
1st Battalion, 4th Special Forces Group
Captain Brian Royce stood at the front of the briefing room as he addressed his operators. “This will be a first for us—the seizing of a hostile station. We’ve never done this before, so I’m not even going to pretend to tell you that this’ll be a walk in the park or that it’ll be tough-as-hell mission because frankly, I don’t know. What I can tell you is this—we’ve come up with what I think is a decent plan for getting us inside the station alive.”
Royce paused for a moment as he brought up several closer-up images of the station. “As you can see, there are a number of close-in point defense turrets protecting the stations. A handful of Primord frigates are going to do their best to take them out for us. What I want to show you, however, are these points here,” he said, using a laser to point at the images.
“This, gentlemen, is how we’re going to get into the station. Once the Prims take the close-in gun turrets, our pilots are going to fly a platoon to each of these access doors. Once the Osprey settles in over it, we’re going to essentially treat this like we would any other ship boarding operation. As a matter of fact, it’s just like that Zodark carrier we assaulted over New Eden many years ago.
“A breaching team in each platoon will cut their way through the access door, allowing the rest of the platoon to breach into the station. From there, each platoon needs to do their best to reach this point here. The intelligence provided to us by the Prims says this location isn’t too far from the hangar bay, which we’ll need to get opened up so the rest of our force can land and help us seize the station. I can’t tell you how many Zodarks are inside, but you can bet they’ll have a decent contingent of them. The sooner we can get the hangar operational, the sooner we can get reinforcements moved in.”
Some of the soldiers whistled, while some whispered and grumbled. This mission was just getting better and better the more they learned about it.
“Now, before we leave for this mission, four Prim commandos will be assigned to each platoon. Once we breach the station and gain access to the hangar, they’ll get it unsealed and opened up. Your job is to secure the hangar and start pushing out further into the station to give us more room. I can’t tell you how long it’ll take to start receiving our reinforcements, so you need to plan on holding the place for as long as possible.
“Once we’re inside, deploy your scout drones ASAP. Get those little buggers mapping the place as quickly as they can. We need to know what the layout of the station is and what kind of force we may be dealing with.”
Captain Royce turned to look at his platoon leaders. “Second Platoon, your job is to secure the hallways and intersections immediately around the hangar once we’ve secured it. Establish a solid blocking force and prevent the Zodarks from sending reinforcements to the hangar bay. First Platoon, your job is to push out beyond our immediate perimeter and go hunting. You’ll cause some chaos inside the station, which will keep the enemy on their toes. When you run into enemy resistance beyond what you can handle, then you need to fall back to the perimeter Second Platoon will have established and reinforce them. Hopefully, your activities will have bought us more time.
“Third and Fourth Platoons, your job is to be the QRF for First and Second Platoons. Whichever one runs into trouble or needs the most help, that’s the platoon you help.”
After they spent another ten minutes going over additional details about the mission, one of the platoon leaders asked, “Sir, are you confident a regular army unit should be our backup? Why wasn’t it possible to get another SF company to help us?”
A few of the other soldiers grunted in agreement as they bobbed their heads up and down.
Royce sighed. “Look, I know you’d rather work with another Delta unit, but it’s just not going to happen. Our battalion and the rest of the group have their own missions on the surface. The Army unit we’ve asked to help us is the 1st OAB. We’ve worked with that unit on New Eden in the past. They fought pretty well with us down there, so I’m confident they’ll do just fine here.
“Now, let’s start getting our gear, weapons, and ammo ready. We’re going to drop out of warp in ninety minutes. Everyone, load up in the Ospreys in seventy. We need to be ready to leave the Midway ASAP once we’re in the system and close to our objective. Understood?”
Everyone gave the obligatory “Hooah!” They’d execute their orders as best they could when the time came.
*******
“Stand by. The Midway is dropping out of warp,” announced the Osprey pilot. Royce had come up to the cockpit to join the pilots as they waited for the action to start.
Minutes later, the Midway did indeed come out of warp, and they were now less than five hundred thousand kilometers from the enemy station. As the area around the Midway populated with targets, they realized they had jumped into a real hornet’s nest.
There were two dozen Zodark cruisers scattered around the battlespace, along with at least one Zodark star carrier and three battleships. There were even an Orbot cruiser and battleship here as well.
Captain Royce and the pilots noticed the George Washington firing its plasma cannon at the Orbot battleship. The energy weapon slammed into the ship with an enormous amount of force. It caused a massive explosion near the rear half of the Orbot ship, which led to multiple secondary e
xplosions that rippled throughout.
Then the GW opened up on the Orbot ship with its primary weapons; its rows of sixty-inch magrail turrets sent strings of slugs at the enemy warship. Then the secondary weapons, the thirty-six-inch guns, turned their attention to the Zodark cruisers as they sought to cull the enemy.
The four Prim battleships moved into position to attack the Zodark battleships while the six human battleships kept their fire directed on the Zodark carrier and the Orbot battleship. The Prim and human cruisers and frigates went to work on the remaining ships. A smaller group of Prim frigates, five in total, headed right for the enemy station. These were the ships assigned to go after the station’s weapons. Until they were taken down, the Midway couldn’t launch its boarding crews to take charge of the station.
The battle around them raged for close to half an hour as the Prim ships fought their way to the enemy station. As they disabled the enemy guns, two Republic Navy battleships moved to the station, adding their volume of fire. These ships were also providing cover for the Midway and the Tripoli as they moved in on the station. Half of the Midway’s Delta teams were slated to assault the station: the others would be hitting objectives down on the planet. The Tripoli, carrying the 1st OAB, would be assaulting the station with the Deltas.
The pilot for the Osprey turned his head slightly to Captain Royce. “Best take a seat, sir, we’re about to launch. This is going to get hairy as we fly into that hornet's nest.”
Taking the hint, Royce climbed back to his seat. He fastened himself in and prepared for what would come next. He knew this was going to be a rocky ride.
Moments later, the Osprey shot down the launch tube and into the darkness of space. After the Osprey left the protection of the Midway, Royce patched himself into the pilots’ camera view so he could get a sense of what was going on around them and keep an eye on their objective: the outer service hatch they’d be cutting their way into.
Brilliant flashes of light zipped throughout the blackness of space all around the warring ships. One Primord ship was firing laser shots in all directions around it as a squadron of smaller Zodark fighters dove in on it. Several of the fighters were blotted from the sky in the form of small explosions, while some of their comrades fired plasma torpedoes that plowed into the Primord ships, causing extensive damage.
While the Zodark fighters pulled up and away from the Primord ship, they practically flipped themselves around. Then they halted their speed and reaccelerated right back at the Primord ship, unleashing another volley of plasma torpedoes. The Prim ship shook violently as half a dozen more torpedoes slammed into them, causing a series of explosions that began to break the allied ship apart.
As the Zodark fighters regrouped to go after another Primord ship, a handful of P-97 Orions came in behind them, raking their spacecraft with 20mm magrail slugs. Half the Zodark fighters exploded before they even knew they were under attack. The enemy ships then darted to different positions, allowing their laser turrets to reangle to engage the human ships. They fired a series of barrages at the Orions. Two of the human starfighters exploded, but not before their pilots were able to eject from the stricken crafts.
A human frigate joined the fray, letting loose brilliant streaks of light from their close-in weapon systems or CIWS 20mm rotary guns. The incredible cyclic rate of fire of these seven-barreled liquid-propellent-fired weapons was nothing short of amazing. With every fifth round being a tracer, it lit up the darkness around the ship like Royce remembered Independence Day back home. The remaining Zodark fighters were ripped to shreds, unable to get out of the way of the torrent of tungsten projectiles being thrown at them.
Royce found himself getting lost in the battle going on around him. He snapped himself out of his observations of the battle and selected the image of the rapidly approaching station that the pilots were looking at. The facility itself was still in the fight. Scorched black marks showed the spots on the station where the Prim frigates had taken out the station’s close-in laser turrets and weapon systems, which had to be destroyed so their Ospreys could attach themselves to the access hatches and cut their way in.
One of the Prim frigates zapped two more laser turrets, only to be cut in half by a Zodark cruiser that moved in. Royce had no idea how large the Zodark cruisers truly were, but he felt their Osprey was tiny in comparison. The enemy ship didn’t appear interested in their little craft as it angled away from them and headed towards one of the human battlecruisers. Its main guns fired a handful of shots at the Bishop, which had been a sister ship to the Rook back in its heyday.
Amid all the craziness going on around them, their Osprey pilot deftly maneuvered them through it all as he continued toward the station. He dodged several missiles, then a couple of laser shots and lastly a Zodark fighter before it was intercepted by an Orion. With skill and a lot of luck, their pilot maneuvered them over the service hatch they needed to cut their way through. He settled the shuttle overtop it and began the process of establishing a seal so the Special Forces operators in the back could cut their way into the starbase.
Once they had a hard seal between the ship and the station, one of the crew chiefs undogged the floor hatch and opened it up. The breaching team was right behind him with their specially designed cutting torch. A Delta trooper dropped down the hatch to the surface of the station. He activated the cutting torch and began to slice the outline of the hatch that would lead them into the station.
Meanwhile, the soldiers inside the troop bay of the Osprey readied themselves and their equipment. They knew once they were inside, things were likely to get pretty crazy. No one knew how many Zodarks were in the station or what kind of nasty surprises they had prepared for them inside.
A lot of the Deltas who’d participated in the battle to capture the Zodark carrier a few years back knew from experience that this was going to be a tough fight. If it was anything like that battle, they’d be using a lot of hand grenades to clear the various rooms and corridors.
The Deltas had brought ten of their C100s on the Osprey. They’d given their group of terminators special orders for this mission—they’d essentially been directed to kill anything and everyone that wasn’t human or Primord inside the station. This would be the first time they used the combat Synths in a close-in battle like this. If things worked out well, then they might use them more often in the future.
Walking past a couple of his guys, Royce made his way over to the hatch to get a look at the soldier cutting their way in. “How much longer?” he asked.
The soldier paused what he was doing as he looked up. “At least five minutes, sir. I’m moving as fast as I can. This access hatch appears to be pretty thick and it looks like they coated it with that organic material they cover the rest of their armor in.”
Royce nodded; he knew the guy was doing his best. Asking him for updates every few minutes wasn’t going to speed things up. They’d get inside the station soon enough.
The minutes ticked by like an eternity while the battle around the station raged on. Meanwhile, their shuttle had to sit there like a tick attached to the belly of a dog. At any given moment, they could be zapped by an enemy laser, blotted from existence. It was perhaps the most helpless feeling any of them had ever experienced.
Then the operators heard the best possible news. “I’m in! I just have to kick it free and we’re in the next room.”
Royce’s tension and anxiety lifted, knowing that in mere moments they’d be inside the station and no longer sitting ducks on the outer hull of the starbase.
One of the soldiers nearby called out to the man with the cutting torch. “Here, let me help you out.” And he jumped down to help the man get the door opened up.
The others got themselves ready and stepped out of the way to allow the C100s to get lined up to enter the station first. Not knowing what they were jumping into, they wanted to let the combat Synths clear them a path. Once the Synths deemed the initial area clear, the rest of the platoon and the remainin
g C100s would follow them in.
When they got inside the station, the plan was to break the C100s up into five two-man teams and turn them loose on the station while the platoon moved to secure the hangar. Once it was secured, the rest of their reinforcements would arrive and the fight to capture the station would ensue.
“Breaching,” called out one of the C100s in its monotone voice as it used its mechanical leg to kick the hatch inward; the door was thrown deep into the corridor that was behind it. The killing machine practically fell inside and flailed its arms and legs out to stabilize itself. Once it was steady on both feet, the C100 immediately had its rifle up and ready for action. While the lead terminator moved into the corridor, the rest of the Synths fell in behind it.
When the first two Synths weren’t immediately shot to pieces or opening fire with their own rifles, the rest of the human platoon started dropping into the corridor. Advancing towards the next door, they used a portable electronic device that did a quick scan of the locking mechanism on the door. Moments later, the light indicator on the device went from red to green, letting them know the door should be unlocked. The lead Synth pushed the door open. As soon as it did, the first group of Synths pushed their way into the next room and spread out.
It appeared the room beyond the initial corridor was attached to a warehouse of some sort. In seconds, the squads of the platoon fanned out inside the cavernous room, clearing the rows of stacked items and locating the other entrances and corridors that led in or out of that space.
So far, they hadn’t stumbled across any Zodarks. Royce actually thought it was a bit disconcerting not stumbling into any enemy soldiers. Soon enough, they’d make contact, though, and once that happened, all bets were off.
One of Royce’s soldiers pulled his patrol pack off, placing it on the ground. He unzipped it and pulled out a dozen microdrones they called Dragonflies. They were only about the size of a fifty-cent piece. One by one, the soldier activated the little drone and synced them up with a small tablet attached to the left side of his forearm.