Precipice of Darkness

by M. D. Cooper

* * * * *

  Once all the ships had exited the dark layer, the TSF fleet made a big show of coming about and executing hard braking burns before transitioning out again.

  Except not all the ships transitioned back into the dark layer. The stasis shield ships activated their stealth systems instead and carefully eased back around the periphery of the system.

  They split up into three battlegroups. The largest, consisting of ninety-seven ships under Svetlana’s command, set a course toward Dios, while Admiral Sebastian headed up ninety-two others. The final group of sixty-seven ships was commanded by the ISF’s Colonel Caldwell.

  Caldwell had the furthest to go. His target, a moon orbiting a gas giant, was nearly on the far side of the system. The plan was to initiate their strikes at the same time, though in reality, light lag would give them three hours before any of the targets saw that others were under attack.

  As they moved into position, Orion picket fleets moved to check out the jump location, but by the time they arrived, the Hoplites would be long gone.

  Svetlana reviewed her team’s strategy once more. It would be perfect and utterly devasting.

  And then they would be gone.

  * * * * *

  Colonel Caldwell examined his battleplan one final time.

  In ten minutes, his ships would all be in position, ready to unleash their deadly hail on the Orion Guard shipyards and the mining operation on the moon below.

  A part of him felt a twinge of guilt. The ISF’s stealth technology was far ahead of Orion’s detection abilities. The EM and debris around the shipyard would make it even easier for them to hide. Anyone scanning space for approaching ships would have a hard time separating false positives from any real threat.

  When the rail PADs, the fleet’s shorthand for the ring-shaped particle accelerator destroyers, opened fire, it would already be too late.

  “Have all the ships reported in?” he asked the Fleet Coordination Officer.

  “Aye, Colonel. Everyone is in full readiness, rings loaded and ready to heat up,” the FCO replied.

  “Good,” Caldwell directed a nod to the lieutenant.

  The design of the PAD destroyer was a clever one, pulled from an old Scattered Worlds design back in the Sol System. Rather than fire single shots through linear accelerators, the PADs accelerated pellets in a half-kilometer circumference ring. They didn’t need to impart relativistic energies to the pellets in one go, but through a slow buildup around the loop.

  The loop had ports every hundred meters, and could easily fire in nearly any direction without moving the ship. The only downside was that the loop got hot when it was active, and bled EM radiation into space with wild abandon. As a result, the ships had to keep their accelerators offline while in stealth

  It was a sacrifice Caldwell was willing to make. The ships’ stasis shields would protect them well enough during the warmups, and the wing of TSF destroyers and cruisers that were their escort would keep any enemy craft from closing with them.

  As he waited, he saw one of the Orion Guard vessels ease out of the construction yard, moving to dock with a grid that anchored the ships while in their final stages of construction.

  He had to admit that the craft was massive. Not as large as an I-Class vessel, but at twenty kilometers in length, the thing was close.

  “What need do they have for a ship like that?” he mused quietly.

  “Sir?” a nearby officer on scan asked.

  “Nothing, Ensign Hela,” he replied. “Just wondering what a ship like that is for.”

  “Not that impressive, really, sir,” Hela said with an exaggerated shrug. “An I-Class dwarfs it.”

  “That’s my thought, too,” Caldwell replied. “When your shock and awe dreadnought is dwarfed by the enemy’s, it doesn’t really create a lot of fear in said enemy.”

  The bridge fell silent again as the crew watched the activity around them unfold until the attack was to begin.

  “What’s that?” one of the ensigns at the helm asked, gesturing to a sizable chunk of rock that was being maneuvered into place by a pair of tugs, stopping next to one of the large enemy ships.

  As the crew watched, armatures extended from the top of the ship and grappled the hundred-meter rock.

  “Graviton emissions!” Ensign Hela called out. “Spacetime distortion centered on that ship!”

  “Spacetime?” Caldwell muttered, then cursed as he saw the rock begin to disintegrate, its mass falling down into an opening on the large ship.

  “My readings align with a singularity,” Hela announced, twisting in her seat. “Do they have a black hole inside that ship?”

  “Fuck,” Colonel Caldwell swore again. “How the hell does Orion have EMGs? Airtha just fielded them three weeks ago at Valkris!”

  “Can they stealth?” the FCO asked.

  “How do you stealth a black hole?” Hela shot back. “Though I didn’t spot it ‘til the thing started feeding…. How did they do that?”

  Caldwell glanced at the countdown, noting that it was only fifty-two seconds before the attack. “FCO! Get on the QuanComm, alert the other battle groups that the Oggies have EMG ships.”

  “Aye, sending the packet,” the FCO announced.

  “Are we still attacking?” Hela asked nervously.

  Caldwell glanced down at the ensign. “Damn straight we are. Those ships only shoot out the front. We’re light and fast. We can outmaneuver them with ease.”

  He saw members of the bridge crew glance at one another in hesitation, but no one spoke their fear.

  * * * * *

  “I’ve a message from Colonel Caldwell,” Svetlana’s FCO announced. “Holy shit! Uh…ma’am, he believes the big daddy ships are EMGs!”

  Svetlana summoned the data the ISF and Transcend had collected in their two encounters with Airthan EMG vessels. The general structure of the ships were similar—though the Oggie versions were significantly smaller. She wondered if that meant they had more refined systems, or if their firing power wasn’t as great.

  “That doesn’t change our objective, people, it just means we need to be extra careful. Tactical, I want our no-fly cones to include vectors that align with the noses of any big daddies.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the TCO called out. “Disseminating this to the fleet.”

  “Admiral Sebastian has acknowledged the intel,” the FCO announced. “He suggests we stay away from the pointy ends.”

  “Insightful,” Svetlana muttered before addressing her crew. “OK, people, we know from how close the Oggies managed to get to Carthage when they attacked New Canaan that they have impressive stealth tech. I don’t know how you stealth a black hole, but we can’t rule it out. Keep your eyes peeled for any more surprises.”

  “Wish we could just use the weapon the ISF did to stop those bastards,” one of her weapons officers muttered.

  “Do you really want to let that cat out of the bag?” Svetlana asked. “You know what happened at SC-91R. Mighty big no-fly zone.”

  “The ISF got the Exdali back into the dark layer,” the man replied.

  “The ISF was desperate,” Svetlana countered. “Not that it matters—it’s not a tool we have. These Oggies will go down the old-fashioned way.”

  “Aye, ma’am,” the weapons officer replied as the countdown entered its final ten seconds.

  At zero, sixty-two ships in Svetlana’s battlegroup decloaked and opened fire on the enemy vessels in the highest orbit around Dios. Seconds later, the Oggie ships responded, hundreds of them boosting into higher orbits and firing on the TSF attackers.

  Stasis shields shed the beams with ease, while concentrated fire from the TSF ships holed an enemy destroyer and cruiser in the first twenty seconds.

  Two down, six thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight to go, Svetlana thought.

  The ships that had uncloaked swung away from Dios, moving into a higher orbit and drawing hundreds of enemy craft after.

  Deeper in the planet’s gravity well, a hundred fus
ion torches came to life as Svetlana’s remaining vessels launched crusher missiles.

  CMs were the opposite of relativistic missiles. They weren’t built to go fast, they were built to move mass. The missiles converged on the asteroid that housed Costa Station, braking before slamming into the station’s hull and the asteroid’s surface. Then the engines flared even brighter, shoving the small moonlet out of its orbit and toward the surface of the planet below.

  Enemy ships diverted from their attacks on the TSF ships, targeting the crusher missiles attached to the asteroid’s surface, while escape pods began to spill from Costa Station.

  A red marker flared on the holotank, and Svetlana focused in on it, pursing her lips as she saw that it was one of the EMG ships.

  No-fly zones lit up across the battlespace, as the TSF fleet repositioned to stay away from the business end of the massive ship-gun.

  “Send a burst to the stealthed ships,” Svetlana ordered the FCO. “I want a dozen CMs on that EMG. Let’s see how well it can shoot when it’s falling into Dios.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Message sent,” the FCO responded. “Acknowledgement received.”

  Svetlana felt her stomach lurch as the Cossack’s Sword shifted under her feet, jinking wildly to avoid the business end of the EMG ship as nine crusher missiles slammed into the stern of the enemy vessel and spun it about.

  A beam fired from the nose of the EMG, degenerate matter and high-energy rays slicing across the battlefield. The shot was invisible to the naked eye, but warnings flared on consoles across the CIC as readings spiked.

  Seconds later, the EMG’s burst began to falter, but not before it hit a TSF destroyer. The impact from the relativistic exotic matter slamming into the stasis shield was like a star had been born right next to them.

  Then the destroyer was gone, the shockwave of an antimatter explosion spreading from its former location.

  “Sweet fucking darkness,” someone nearby whispered.

  “I want all rails to hit that fucking thing,” Svetlana called out. “Bring it down!”

  A dozen ships with clear firing solutions sent salvos into the EMG’s engines, killing them and removing the ship’s ability to fight against the crusher missiles pushing against its shields.

  A moment later, the vessel’s shields failed, and the missiles slammed into its hull. The EMG began to list, slewing across the battlespace until a part of its hull crumpled inward.

  “It’s collapsing!” Hela called out.

  It happened so fast, Svetlana could barely see it. One moment, the ship was a physical object in space, the next, it was gone in a blinding flash of light, along with the crusher missiles and a nearby Oggie destroyer.

  “Tracking the singularity,” Hela announced. “The CMs had the EMG on a hohmann transfer to lower orbit, it’s following that path....”

  “Huh…nice of the Oggies to give us the best tool for the job,” Svetlana said in a low voice.

  The plan had been to smash the moonlet that Costa Station was attached to into the planet—hopefully destroying one of the mining rigs while they were at it—but a singularity was a far better option.

  “Impact with Dios in four hours,” Hela said in an awed voice. “We’re gonna see a planet die.”

  The OG ships seemed to reach the same conclusion, pulling into higher orbits and forming up into battlegroups that hinted at a retreat.

  The tally at the top of the holotank showed that only seventeen enemy ships had been destroyed, though another forty-two had taken noteworthy damage.

  “Update from Colonel Caldwell,” The FCO announced. “He’s destroyed his target, and the enemy ships are fleeing. He wants to know if he should pursue.”

  Svetlana watched as the OG ships around Dios broke away from the battle, harried by her forces.

  “No, have him form up at Rally Point Charlie.”

  “Ma’am?” the FCO asked.

  “No pursuit; all three of our fleets chasing the enemy outsystem makes us too vulnerable, and exposes too much of our capability to them. Inform Admiral Sebastian to fall back to Charlie once his primary target is eliminated. Our work in the Quera System is done.”

  SABRINA DEPARTING

  STELLAR DATE: 09.25.8949 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Sabrina, A1 Dock, ISS I2

  REGION: Pyra, Albany System, Thebes, Septhian Alliance

  As Seraphina walked onto Sabrina’s bridge, a flood of emotion rushed through her.

  She traced a hand along the edge of a console, marveling at how the space looked mostly the same, but felt so very different. The pilot’s seat looked as it always had, complete with a pair of Cheeky’s heels kicked underneath the console—which was strange, given that she could make her feet into shoes.

  Does she detach them? That’s kinda creepy.

  Small knickknacks adorned other surfaces, giving the space a more lived-in appearance than it had possessed under her tenure as captain.

  Over twenty years ago, she reminded herself. Cargo sat in that captain’s chair longer than I did.

  “Though I bet he wasn’t the one that made it purple,” she muttered with a shake of her head.

  “That was me,” Cheeky said as she strode onto the bridge clothed only in a red sarong and a pair of spike-heeled sandals. “Well, Usef added these.” The ship’s captain leant over and touched a small button on the side of the chair, and glitter shot out of the seat, showering the area in sparkling points of light.

  “Sweet stars in the dark.” Seraphina couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ve only met Usef briefly, but that…that doesn’t jibe.”

  “You’d be surprised what Usef gets up to,” Cheeky said with a wink. “You wanna try the chair?”

  Seraphina gazed at the glitter-covered purple edifice and shook her head. “Even if I wasn’t worried about getting glitter out of my clothes for the next week…it’s not mine anymore. You should sit in it.”

  “Me?” Cheeky squeaked. “Stars no. If I’m on this bridge, I’m in the pilot’s seat. Honestly, I was kinda thinking of taking it out entirely—but that feels weird too.”

  “Purple!” a voice cried out from behind them and then Fina pushed past and leapt into the captain’s chair. “And sparkles? Sweet fucking darkness, I’ve missed being on this ship. How could I have ever left you, Sabs?”

  Sabrina replied.

  “That’s good to know,” Fina replied absently, looking over the controls on the chair. “How do I make it shoot more glitter?”

  “I wish you wouldn’t,” Nance said as she walked onto the bridge, scowling at the sparkling mess. “Jessica fired that stuff off all the time, and I’m still getting it out of the filtration systems. Every now and then when a vent kicks on, it showers glitter.”

  Fina glanced at Nance, a wide grin on her face. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.” As she spoke, her skin and hair turned purple, matching the chair perfectly. “We should get Jessica on here one last time before she heads out on her secret mission with Trevor. See if we can get her to sit on me.”

  “You know her skin can electrocute you,” Cheeky warned.

  “Sounds like fun!”

  “Stars,” Seraphina muttered while lowering her face into both hands. “Are you going to start shrinking, as a part of your regression into a child?” Her head snapped up. “And if you shrink your limbs and try to look like a child, I’ll slap you into next week.”

  Fina’s skin shifted back to her standard blue hue, and she scowled at Seraphina. “Just having some fun. Gotta make up for you.”

  “Sisters,” Sera muttered as she walked onto the bridge, Finaeus and Jeffrey in tow. “You never know you want them ‘til you get them. Then you doubt your sanity in new and exciting ways.”

  “Not to mention that you have Andrea for a sister,” Finaeus replied. “She probably put you off the idea of sisters forever.”

  “Got that right,” the three Seras said in ne
ar unison, then proceeded to stare at one another warily.

  Sabrina said with a note of wonderment in her voice.

  “I’m still captain,” Cheeky said, giving the Seras a mock glower. “I didn’t do all the work on this ship for the last thirty years just to give up my shot at the big job.”

  Her statement was met with derision and mockery from all sides, to which Cheeky only laughed in response. “I can’t wait for this mission—it’s going to be a blast.”

  Seraphina glanced at her father, seeing a look of consternation warring with general amusement on his face.

  “Don’t worry, Father, we know how to buckle down when it counts.”

  “Wouldn’t have survived this long if we didn’t,” Sera added.

  “I get why we don’t have to be somber while saving the galaxy,” Jeffrey said while shaking his head at Finaeus and Cheeky, who were wrapping their arms around one another for an impassioned kiss. “But does it have to be a ‘clothing-optional’ event?”

  “Why, Mister President,” Cheeky said in a sultry voice. “Everything is a clothing-optional event.”

  Jeffrey glanced at Finaeus. “You have the strangest taste in wives.”

  Seraphina’s lips quirked into a smile as Finaeus slapped Jeffrey on the shoulder. “Just like my brother,” he quipped. “OK, ladies, the High Guard’s aboard, let’s get this show on the road.”

  STAR CITY

  STELLAR DATE: 09.25.8949 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Tanis’s Lakehouse, Ol’ Sam, ISS I2

  REGION: Pyra, Albany System, Thebes, Septhian Alliance

  “You two ready for this?” Tangel asked as she walked through the orchard behind her lakehouse with Jessica and Trevor. “Earnest’s calculations for operating a jump gate so close to the Stillwater Nebula should work, but if not, you’ll have to fly out to Serenity, or maybe even further to make a jump home.”

  “They’ll work,” Jessica said, giving Trevor a reassuring glance. “I know because of how red Finaeus’s face got when he looked over Earnest’s solutions. He started out by saying something along the lines of, ‘Only an idiot would operate a jump gate below a gas giant’s cloudtops’, but then he simply started repeating ‘Balls’ over and over again.”